AP
 
London, Nov 16 (mb): An England team with David Beckham, Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney is in danger of missing next year's European Championship.

After failing to beat Macedonia, Croatia, Israel and Russia, an English team coached by Steve McClaren plays Croatia at Wembley on Wednesday and will need considerable luck to make it to the 2008 tournament in Austria and Switzerland.

England was on course to qualify when it led Russia 1-0 in Moscow a month ago, but then conceded two late goals for a loss. The result means the Russians will move ahead of England on Saturday by beating Israel in Tel Aviv.

Then Russia has the easy task of finishing with a victory over Andorra, which has lost all 10 group games, giving up 39 goals and scoring only two.

"It's going to be difficult," England midfielder Steven Gerrard said. "We are going to be heroes or villains. The fans are entitled to their opinion."

English fans have been starved of success since Alf Ramsey led the team to the 1966 World Cup title in a memorable final against West Germany.

There were signs England might keep the title in 1970 until it ran into the Germans again. Despite the absence of goalkeeper Gordon Banks, laid low with food poisoning, England fell apart and lost 3-2.

England failed to qualify for the next two World Cups and Ron Greenwood's team was eliminated before the semifinals in '82 without losing a game.

Then came all that bad luck.

At the 1986 World Cup, it was Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" goal. England fans tend to forget Maradona's brilliant second goal when he dribbled through the defense in Argentina's 2-1 quarterfinal victory.

Four years later, England reached the semifinals and again met the Germans. After a standout game ended 1-1, the outcome was decided on penalty kicks, and two English players were the only ones to miss.

Following a feeble first-round elimination at the 1992 European Championship, England was unable to qualify for the 1994 World Cup in the United States.

Home advantage at Euro '96 led to a revival and another semifinal penalty shootout loss to Germany. The team went to the World Cup in 1998 hoping to make an impact under Glenn Hoddle but tumbled in the second round against Argentina, again on penalties.

That time the blame went to Beckham, who petulantly kicked an opponent early in the second half and was sent off. England played with a man short the rest of the game, including 30 minutes of extra time, before succumbing in a shootout with not enough suitable penalty takers left on the field.

At the World Cup in 2002, it was Ronaldinho's free-kick lob over goalkeeper David Seaman that meant a 2-1 quarterfinal loss to Brazil. It gets forgotten that Ronaldinho was sent off shortly after and Brazil played the last 33 minutes with 10 men.

Four years later, Rooney was ejected, Beckham limped off injured and England lost a penalty shootout to Portugal after a 0-0 draw.

"In general terms we have qualified for the last dozen years or so for every major tournament and we seem to get to the last eight," Owen said. "It's such a fine line. We could easily have gone on and won one of them."

Owen, who made his name as an 18-year-old with his wonder goal in that game against Argentina at World Cup '98, contends that England is not the only underachiever.

"It sounds like the old English hard-luck story," he said. "But look at other countries, like Spain, with massive reputations, they will be saying the same thing."