Kevin Keegan faced his first opposition as England Manager on this day.

As a player Kevin Keegan enjoyed an impressive England career; winning 63 caps, scoring 21 goals and captaining the team on 31 occasions.

Finishing his international career after the 1982 World Cup, it was 17 years later that the Three Lions came knocking once more.

Success at Newcastle Utd and Fulham had made Keegan a manager in demand and when the England Manager position was made vacant by Glenn Hoddle, Keegan stepped into the breach.

His first task was to get an indifferent Euro 2000 qualifying campaign back on track, and it was on this day in 1999 that Keegan made his debut as manager in a qualifying clash with Poland at Wembley.

If history was anything to go by, this was as good a game as any for the incoming manager – England had played Poland ten times over five previous tournament qualifying campaigns, during which they had lost only once. And Keegan’s charges managed to maintain the positive record thanks to a stunning display from Manchester United’s Paul Scholes, who bagged all three goals in a 3-1 victory.

Keegan went on to lead England to second place in the qualifying group, resulting in a play-off with Scotland, the first time the Three Lions had met the Auld Enemy since the 1996 European Championship finals.

Like ’96, it was England who prevailed, but only thanks to the away goals rule – winning 2-0 at Hampden Park and losing 1-0 at Wembley. The result, however, was that England were on their way to the Euro 2000 Finals.