Three Lions Captain Beckham admits to being frustrated in Copenhagen as England were beaten 4-1in a match he described as a "slap round the face".

But England, who trail group-leaders Poland by two points with a critical game in hand, now have a chance to erase those memories with qualifying matches against Wales in Cardiff on Saturday and Northern Ireland in Belfast four days later.

Beckham is quick to point out that England have never lost a qualifying match under Sven-Goran Eriksson and is confident the team will be 100 per cent focused in Cardiff.

He said: "Our record in qualifiers is very good and we have to continue that. What happened in Denmark was a wake-up call and it’s better to have had that call now than in the next round of important qualifying games.

"Everyone has been talking about the excitement of the World Cup, but as I have said all along, we have a lot of work to do to get to the finals before we even begin thinking about it."

England may be favourites in some people’s eyes for the next two games, but both matches have a ‘derby’ feel to them and no-one in the camp will be taking anything for granted.

Beckham said: “They are big games and we need to come back quickly. All the players in this team are well used to criticism and it’s just a case of getting over that - and we will, because we can’t let our confidence be knocked too much.

"We now have two massive qualifying games and the match against Denmark should be forgotten about. This team has the potential, it’s got the experience and especially with the young lads coming through we have a chance of doing something special.

"But we have got to play a lot better than we did against Denmark.

"I really felt for the fans who paid to watch us in that game, and the only thing I can promise them is that we are going to do it in the qualifying matches. They are the games that matter."