A glorious night in Seville saw England defeat Spain 3-2 in the UEFA Nations League with the home crowd stunned by three first-half goals from the visitors and the kind of display that they would never previously have associated with an English national team.
The youngest England starting XI since 1959 not only contained Spain for large part of the game but showed maturity and ruthlessness to pick off their hosts almost at will in an opening 45 minutes that stands with the best ever Three Lions displays.
Having changed his system from the back three deployed at the World Cup, Gareth Southgate was vindicated in the most emphatic style possible as the pace of Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford caused chaos at the back for Spain but only because England, from Jordan Pickford to Harry Kane, picked the right pass at the right moment.
Sterling himself was transformed from his Russian woes in front of goal to an ice-cool finisher of two excellent moves and repaid the manager in spades for his constant backing and encouragement.
"The players should be incredibly proud of their performance," said Southgate after the game.
"We spoke to the forward players before the game to remind them what a threat they are and they were outstanding, causing all sorts of problems.
"Then it was up to the rest of the team to be brave and we did that really well at times. We are encouraging them to take risks. The young players put on a mature performance and withstood pressure really well."