The battling Albanians had held Sven Goran Eriksson's men for more than 70 minutes, but Owen's strike 18 minutes from time settled England's nerves, and a second goal 5 minutes from time from Paul Scholes should have seen them through to a comfortable victory.

But two minutes into injury time, England conceded a goal after indecision in the English defence let in the substitute Altin Rraklli in to score. And it could have been worse, as the Albanians had the ball in the net again a minute later, but it was ruled out for offside.

Then, with the 5 minutes of injury time up, England roared forward again. Heskey stabbed the ball in from the left, and Andy Cole got his international goalscoring underway with a shot from close range.

It was virtually the last kick of the match, but there was further controversy as Ashley Cole appeared to be struck by a missile thrown from the crowd as the England players celebrated the goal.

The first half had seen few chances created on either side, with only England skipper David Beckham imposing himself on the game, and going close with two free kicks.

England started the second half much more brightly, but couldn't make the pressure tell. The Albanians then came back strongly for a spell, but Seaman was only tested by a long shot that took a deflection.

England had brought Emile Heskey on as a half time substitute for Steve McManaman, and the Liverpool forward made his physical presence felt.

England should have had a penalty after 62 minutes when Nicky Butt was brought down, but the goal finally came when Gary Neville brought the ball forward from the back. He squared the ball to Paul Scholes, whose first-time pass split the defence to leave Owen running free to slot the ball under the goalkeeper.

It was his tenth goal for England, and his seventh away from home, and gave England a greater level of confidence.

The second goal game just after Teddy Sheringham had replaced Owen. Another England attack saw Andy Cole break free on the left hand side after 85 minutes. He attacked the full-back, and drove into the 6 yard box before pulling the ball back into the path of his Manchester United team mate Paul Scholes who forced the ball into the roof of the net.

It was the 11th international goal for the midfielder, and should have settled the match before the dramatic finale saw Albania's fortunes wax and then wane.

Sven Goran Eriksson said:"Of course we knew that it was going to be a difficult game. Albania did well against Germany.

"We played well in the first half but could not score. In the second half we scored three goals.

"Andy Cole played very well but all the team played very well. We gave away almost nothing to Albania. Now we have to go on from here."