Set-pieces have always been an important part of English football, with many goals coming from them. Today, D is for a dead ball situation.

England have had their fair share of dead ball specialists with David Beckham, Stuart Pearce, Bobby Charlton, Chris Waddle and John Barnes being notable examples.

In the last 20 years some of the greatest goals scored by the Three Lions have been from dead-ball situations. Here are a few...

* In a 1993 World Cup qualifier at Wembley, Graham Taylor's England faced Holland who were their main rivals in a tightly contested group. England were awarded a free-kick 30 yards from goal.

Barnes stepped up to take it and delivered a vicious, dipping, bending shot over the Dutch wall and past the diving Ed De Goey in goal before watching it nestle in the top corner to put England 1-0 up.

* Beckham scored a trademark free-kick against Colombia in the 1998 World Cup. His effort drifted over the wall and flew past the despairing keeper and into the bottom corner to give the Three Lions a two goal advantage - as well as his first ever goal for The Three Lions.

* The 1990 World Cup second round match between England and Belgium was locked in a stalemate and heading for penalties. Until the last minute of extra time when a beautifully flighted chipped free-kick from Paul Gascoigne was volleyed home by David Platt to send England through to the quarter finals.

* After 120 minutes of goalless action, the Euro 96 quarter-final between England and Spain went to penalty kicks. You could hear a pin drop inside Wembley as the Three Lions faced their first shootout since crashing out of Italia '90 to Germany.

With the score at 2-1 to England, Stuart Pearce - who had missed in the shootout in Turin - was next up.

With the whole of the country urging him to bury the ghost of 1990, Pearce unleashed a bullet of a strike low and hard into the bottom corner. The outburst of emotion from 'Psycho' when he realised he had scored will live in the memory of England fans forever.

* At Old Trafford in 2001, England were 2-1 down to Greece and in severe danger of blowing their hopes of qualifying for the World Cup the following year in Japan and Korea.

With two minutes of injury time gone a free-kick was awarded to England 30 yards from the Greek goal. It was the last chance saloon for Sven-Goran Eriksson's men.

After playing possibly his best game as England captain, Beckham stepped up and hit a glorious free-kick which flew into the top corner.

Old Trafford was delirious as the skipper rescued the Three Lions and booked their place to the finals in the Far East.

Stay with TheFA.com as we continue our England A to Z. Tomorrow - letter E...