SVEN-GORAN Eriksson launched a spirited defence of Michael Owen last night after the Real Madrid striker was the victim of a bizarre verbal attack from Azerbaijan coach Carlos Alberto.

The Brazilian World Cup winner watched his side go down fighting 2-0 at St James' Park in the World Cup qualifying Group Six game and then launched into Owen at the post-match press conference.

Owen was closing in on two landmark England goal tallys - 30 for England and 22 in competitive games - but he failed to find the target on a night to forget for the 25-year-old former Liverpool striker.

He missed at least five clear chances after he was reported earlier in the week as saying he could score five and match the feat of Newcastle United legend, Malcolm Macdonald, who scored a quintet against Cyprus at Wembley back in 1975.

That was the comment which angered Carlos Alberto.

"I am annoyed he said that if Poland could score eight then he would five on his own," said the Azerbaijan coach.

"I would like to tell him to respect everyone. Who is Michael Owen? What has he won?

"He plays for Real Madrid but he never starts. He is on the bench every game - he has no right to say he could sore five goals against Azerbaijan.

"Where were those goals? He didn't score."

Carlos Albrto then began to personally insult Owen saying: "Sven-Goran Eriksson is a gentleman.

"I will ask the short guy to respect everyone. He thinks he is a king but who is he?

"He is a midget. He should go and clean David Beckham's boots."

Eriksson was quick to defend his striker saying: "What I know about Michael Owen he would never say such a thing. That's not his style."

Speaking about Owen's performance, Eriksson said: "He was unlucky. The goalkeeper - if you saw his performance on Saturday (against Poland) - today he was very very good."

The England coach warned the watching public not to expect an avalanche of goals - despite their nearest challengers at the top of Group Six, Poland, putting eight past Azerbaijan at the weekend.

Eriksson said one goal would be enough, but he was more than happy to settle for two thanks to second half strikes from Steven Gerrard and skipper David Beckham.

"We scored two but we could have scored five or six easily - but that's life," said Eriksson, whose side made it six points from two games following Saturday's 4-0 win against Northern Ireland at Old Trafford and maintain their one point lead over Poland at the top of the group.

"In two games we've scored a lot of goals and created a lot of chances. They were two very professional performances."

Eriksson had special praise for his skipper, Beckham, who scored his 16th international goal on his 80th appearance and was everywhere in the second half.

"I thought he played well Saturday and he was even better today," said Eriksson, who this week defended his skipper saying he warranted his place in the England side for "football reasons" alone.

"He played well and scored a very important goal."

* Lawrie Sanchez blamed a moment of naivety as his Northern Ireland side were condemned to defeat by Poland.

The province were heading for an unlikely point, but with three minutes remaining, Maciej Zurawski grabbed the winner after goalkeeper Maik Taylor had made a string of superb saves.

Northern Ireland lost heavily to England at the weekend following a catalogue of errors and Sanchez said: ''We have shot ourselves in the foot again. We were naive.

''We had them bang to rights 0-0 after giving a solid performance. Then we give away a goal like that with minutes to go. I feel for the players. They worked their socks off.''

* John Toshack vowed not to punish calamity goalkeeper Danny Coyne, despite the Burnley stopper's howler costing Wales dear in Austria. Coyne conceded in the dying minutes to gift Austria a 1-0 win in the Group Six qualifier, after the Wales strikers had wasted a glittering array of chances.