England were expected to put a hatful of goals past the former Soviet republic but it was not to be while 10-man France could only draw 1-1 in Israel and Spain's travels to Serbia and Montenegro finished 0-0.

The old maxim there are no easy games in football was proved once again as Azerbaijan, 8-0 losers to Poland at the weekend, managed to hold England at bay till half-time at St James' Park.

It took 51 minutes for midfielder Gerrard to break the deadlock before Beckham beat the offside trap to seal victory 11 minutes later.

England remain top of Group Six on 16 points, one ahead of Poland who beat Northern Ireland 1-0 in Warsaw.

Beckham, under-fire for some poor recent international performances, insisted that the criticisms had not driven him on.

"It is not difficult to deal with criticism because if you choose not to listen to it you carry on with your life and football and carry on enjoying it.

England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson admitted it had been a frustrating night.

"Football is hard work. It should be hard work and we won the game," he said.

The Swede also came to the support of Michael Owen who missed a hatful of chances and also picked up a booking which will rule him out of the match with Wales later this year.

"I think Michael played well. He missed a lot of chances but you know who Michael Owen is and in the big games he puts the ball in the net," said Eriksson.

France meanwhile paid the price of hero-to-villain David Trezeguet being sent off for headbutting.

Israel's Walid Badier scored a late equalizer at Tel Aviv's Ramat Gan stadium to keep Group 4 wide open.

France, who have only beaten Cyprus and Faroe Islands so far, top the group on 10 points with Israel but

Switzerland and the Republic of Ireland are just one point further back with a game in hand.

Trezeguet's 31st goal in 58 appearances put him ahead of legend Just Fontaine into second place behind the 41 of Michel Platini in France's all-time scoring list.

Five minutes after the break, France got the breakthrough goal. Sylvain Wiltord crossed from the right to the far post and Trezeguet's downward header found the net after making the most of poor Israeli defending.

Trezeguet was not on the pitch much longer however. He was sent off in the 57th minute for headbutting Tal Ben Haim moments after he suffered a late tackle from him. Ben Haim was given a yellow card.

Badier's equaliser came in the 83rd minute which had most of the 43,000 crowd celebrating. From an Adoram Keisi centre on the left, unmarked Badier headed home at the far post after keeper Fabien Barthez could only get his fingertips to the cross.

Spain's 0-0 draw leaves them two points behind leaders Serbia and Montenegro in Group 7 but Luis Aragones's side still have home games to come against Lithuania, Bosnia Herzegovina and the Serbians.

Netherlands top Group 1 by one point from the Czech Republic following their 2-0 home win over Armenia while the Czechs won 4-0 in Andorra and Ukraine lead Group 2 in the wake of a 1-0 home victory over Denmark.

Turkey were the highest scorers of the night with a 5-2 victory in Georgia, also in Group 2.