Owen rues missed chances

Owen is thwarted by the Albanian goalkeeper

Michael Owen believes he should have scored a second hat-trick in as many matches in England's victory over Albania on Wednesday night.

The Liverpool striker opened the scoring for England with just a minute remaining in the first half - but said that goal should have been his third of the night.

"It's always a nice moment to score. I had a couple of chances before which I thought I should have done better with, but probably scored with the hardest chance, so I was pleased," Owen said.

Owen's goal came when he hit a first-time volley from a perfectly weighted through ball from Paul Scholes.

One more will do, and then we can all look forward to the World Cup

Michael Owen

But he had already missed several good chances.

Earlier in the first half, he had sent a header wide and then a first-time shot from the edge of the penalty area straight at the Albanian goalkeeper.

Then, after 33 minutes, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville combined to send David Beckham free on the right.

The England captain crossed to Owen at the near post, but the Liverpool man shot wide.

But Owen was not too distressed about failing to repeat his heroics in Munich on Saturday night against a stubborn and effective Albanian side.

Owen said: "The result was the important thing. We know we can play better than we played tonight, but it was still a great result, and that was the main thing.

'In England's hands'

"We never got carried away. We knew we weren't going to beat them 5-1 or whatever, we knew it was going to be tight."

England are now all-but sure of qualifying if they beat Greece at Old Trafford on 6 October.

They will still be equal with Germany on points if England's rivals also win their remaining match against Finland on the same night, but England have a far superior goal difference.

"We've got it all in our own hands now and with Greece at home, if we can get three points, then it's off to the World Cup," Owen said.

"One more will do, and then we can all look forward to the World Cup - but we've got to get that result first."

Greece lost 5-1 in Finland on Wednesday night.