'I was hit on the head by bottles'

David Beckham braved a torrent of hostility from the Greeks last night and while his stoical leadership qualities helped England win their fifth successive game under Sven Goran Eriksson, the Football Association has asked Fifa, the world governing body, and the Greek Football Federation to look into the situation.

The captain, who scored his third goal in his last four England games to seal the game, said: "I was hit on the head by bottles, lighters, coins ­ you name it. We were warned that was going to happen, the manager told us what they might try to do and stressed the importance of maintaining our discipline. One of their boys went through me in the first minute and I knew from that moment on they were out to wind me up."

Paul Newman, the FA's communications director, said: "We've asked Fifa and the Greek authorities to look into it."

Eriksson said of his captain: "He was very calm. He just stood still, made no protest and showed very good behaviour. It was good discipline, but then the whole team showed good discipline. I'm very happy.

"This is a very good win to finish the season and to start the holidays. The players deserve their holiday now after an extremely hard season.

"England deserved to win. We created many good occasions, and played with patience. We waited for the possibilities to come. This is a good result and anything is possible now in this group. We will see after the holiday when we play Holland [15 August], which will be good preparation for the game in Germany on 1 September."

Beckham added: "We're in a great position now with three games to go. People said we couldn't qualify for the World Cup finals but look at us now. The Germany game is massive."