A 2-0 victory in Albania on Sunday completed a flawless World Cup qualification campaign for England and without conceding a goal in their eight matches to boot.
Although Thomas Tuchel made a number of changes for the game, including a starting place for Jude Bellingham, captain Harry Kane wasn't rested and showed his insatiable appetite for adding more goals to his international tally with strikes in the 74th and 82nd minutes.
"It was a really tough game, one of the toughest we had in the group," he told ITV after the game.
After a slow start to his time in charge, albeit with comfortable home wins against Albania and Latvia in March, then a summer wobble when England were beaten by Senegal, Tuchel's side have come alive this autumn to stake a claim as one of the front-runners to lift the World Cup trophy in July.
The next step along that road is the draw for the finals on December 5, with England next getting together in March for a pair of friendlies against a different type of opposition to that they have faced in yet another smooth qualification campaign.
Changes are being mooted to the way the process will work for Euro 2028, with national associations and UEFA aware that the increase in the number of teams at the finals of major tournaments is taking some of the bite and jeopardy out of qualification.
It has certainly been risk-free for England this time around but, whatever the quality of the opposition they have faced, that reflects well on the continued hunger of players such as Kane, Jordan Pickford and Declan Rice to keep the performance level high.
