It was Owen who opened the scoring in Albania five days later, with Paul Scholes and Andy Cole adding the others in a 3-1 win.
England were in the middle of an unbelievable sequence, which saw 14 consecutive qualification goals scored by Liverpool and Manchester United players only.
A 2-0 win in Greece was achieved with goals from Scholes and Beckham.
That summer win set Eriksson's men up perfectly for the game in Germany, which England had to win to harbour any realistic hopes of direct qualifying.
And what a night it proved to be, with Carsten Jancker opening the scoring, only to be avalanched by a superlative England performance.
A Michael Owen hat-trick, and goals from Steven Gerrard and Emile Heskey gave England the kind of victory that Eriksson could have dreamed of.
The 2-0 win over Albania was more subdued, with Owen and Robbie Fowler on target.
Those results meant that a win over Greece at Old Trafford in the final game of the group would be enough to guarantee automatic qualification for England.