At Wembley yesterday afternoon England defeated Croatia to ensure qualification for the knockout stages of the inaugural UEFA Nations League.
While it’s true that this win doesn’t make up for that semi-final failure in Moscow in July, England seem to have taken a significant step forward in this match and indeed in the tournament as a whole.
Today’s win for the Three Lions comes on the back of a superb performance in Spain last month as England won 3-2 to put themselves in the position to win the group.
And with this victory over Croatia they go forward to the next stage of the competition with the chance to win an international prize for the first time since the now distant memory of the 1966 World Cup.
The Nations League was not altogether embraced by everyone when UEFA announced it’s creation. But it has produced some excellent games and this was another entertaining and absorbing contest between two well-matched sides at national stadium.
And England had to come from behind in this match after Croatia took a lead a little against the run of play during the second half.
It looked like England would rue a series of missed first half chances when they were well on top and once again slip to defeat against the talented, experienced and tournament-savvy East Europeans.
But they rallied and with a little bit of good fortune staged a comeback to snatch the win and finish top of the group, relegating their opponents at the same time.
England appear to have made some real progress during this Nations League competition and at last seem to be building a team that might be able to compete with the best international sides in the world.
For far too long England have flattered to deceive, routinely qualifying for tournaments only to crash out whenever they have met a quality side and sometimes even a not so quality side!
At this summer’s World Cup it seemed as though that pattern was repeating itself as the Three Lions squandered a lead and lost in the semi-final.
And while it’s still too early to be certain that England have overcome what seemed a profound mental or physiological block, results in the Nations League have hinted at genuine progress.
England have played with attacking flair, creativity and conviction and have the air of an increasingly self-confident and resolute side.
And surviving a second half onslaught from Spain as well as coming from behind to beat Croatia represent milestones in this progression.
The next step is to translate this improvement into success next summer. We wait and see if that is indeed the case.