Keegan eventually decided on deploying McManaman on the left-wing on several occasions in 1999 and under Keegan, McManaman finally broke his international goal scoring duck when he scored twice on 4 September 1999 in the 6–0 Euro 2000 qualifier victory over Luxembourg, again, at Wembley. Keegan took McManaman's new career at Madrid as a basis to reinstate his confidence in him, and handed him a coveted free role ahead of Euro 2000, stating that "in the past we compromised him ... but McManaman's UEFA Champions League success, we said 'we'll fit in with you, you've earned that chance'. At the time, even former coach Glenn Hoddle chimed in with support for this decision, adding that though he feared teams would not give McManaman (and the team) the space he thrived on at the tournament, he believed that finding a way to deploy McManaman effectively in a special system was difficult "but it can be done."