On Monday, England will face the 210th best team in the world. Out of 210. They need a point. So it is done. As good as over. Gareth Southgate cannot admit this before completing the formality in Serravalle against San Marino, but this time next year England will be preparing for the World Cup finals in Qatar.
England’s next opponent is a nation yet to win a competitive match in 29 years of asking. Even so, it is hard to imagine it can be any easier than this. The final home encounter with Albania, it was said, contained the potential for mishap. Yeah, right.
We can look at this two ways. The crowd – capacity, absolutely astonishing in the circumstances – seemed to enjoy themselves. They saw plenty of goals, they saw Harry Kane break a record and they saw Emile Smith Rowe’s international debut. Equally, if we want to explore why international football is losing its spark, it is the number of occasions like this. A contest that wasn’t, an examination with all the answers on the back of the paper.
Albania still had a hope of making Group I’s play-off place which it was imagined might make them dangerous. But this was a false threat. Albania did not even have the ability to execute a nefarious plan to kick England off the park.
Their best chance came with a misplaced back pass from Kyle Walker which gave Myrto Uzuni a scoring opportunity. Jordan Pickford saved, and that was Albania done. By contrast, England were five goals clear by half-time, and it could have been more. Kane scored a hat-trick in the space of 27 minutes. Albania lost two players to injury early and gave up. Kane’s third goal was an overhead volley at the far post from a corner. He had the freedom of Albania at the time; or at least it looked that way.
Wembley lapped it up, but we need to be realistic. Qualifying groups like the one England have encountered are to the detriment of the international game. It’s too easy, truly it is. Maybe it wasn’t once, but that was before the advent of play-offs and Nations League wild cards and various jokers the organisers have built in just in case there is even the smallest chance of a major nation failing to make it through. Oh, and expanded finals’ tournaments so swathes from one continent now progress.
Still, as any professional will opine, you can only beat what is in front of you and England gave Albania a damn good thrashing until ennui took hold. Those disappointed by the second-half need to appreciate the context. This is a gruelling season. Who can blame any player for deciding to conserve energy? A single point is still required whether winning by five or ten. England got the job done swiftly, then coasted downhill. It was the sensible plan.
Before half-time, Kane had overtaken Wayne Rooney as England’s most prolific competitive goalscorer, and had drawn level with Jimmy Greaves’ overall total of 44. ‘Why couldn’t we have played teams like this?’ Greaves once asked, having been a guest at a game against the woeful Andorra. It’s fair to say he might rather have enjoyed the odd outing against the Albanians, too.
England could have been ahead within four minutes had referee Ruddy Buquet correctly identified the challenge by Marash Kumbulla on Raheem Sterling as a foul. He was taken out by a forearm to the chest, sending him cascading into another defender and tumbling to the ground inside the penalty area. Nothing doing, said Buquet. Fortunately, it was not one of those nights when such misadventures later achieved significance.
Klaus Gjasula went into the book for a very nasty two-footed tackle from behind on Kane after eight minutes as Albania’s game-plan was made obvious, but it did not matter. They were not good enough at the rest of it to make villainy count. The free-kick saw Reece James standing over the ball.
There remains a debate over whether he should play ahead of Trent Alexander-Arnold – certainly when the Liverpool man scores goals like the one at West Ham last Sunday. It overlooks, however, that James has skill from set pieces, too, as he demonstrated here. He struck a lovely ball from the right, curling in and allowing Harry Maguire to outstrip his marker and power a header past goalkeeper Thomas Strakosha.
Maguire celebrated by cupping his ears to the crowd. Strange, given they had cheered for him every step of the way. But Maguire is a sensitive soul. Friends say he trawls social media, and its darker corners cannot have made a pleasant read with Manchester United and their captain in poor form of late. Here was his answer to all that negativity. A goal against Albania is unlikely to silence any critic for long, however.
Kane has been having an unhappy time of it, too, lately, but if strikers score in streaks this match could be good news for Tottenham manager Antonio Conte.
In the 18th minute, Kane claimed the first of three and while Albania’s defence made it little more than a training exercise for a player of his worth, sometimes a fortunate break is all it takes. Goalscorers talk of luck changing with a simple deflection, and Kane’s goals were much more than that.
His first came after a lovely move, started in the heart of England’s midfield. Jordan Henderson benefitted from Declan Rice’s absence and he certainly made the most of it.
His initial pass found Phil Foden on the right, and the Liverpool man kept going beyond, picking up the return and, without looking, hitting it into that area strikers love. Sure enough, there was Kane, a free header at the far post and an age to pick his spot. That can be a curse, but not for him. No sign of panic as he buried the ball, and Albania.
Just ten minutes later, the same partnership, reversed. Henderson was the architect again, but this time he pinged the ball into Kane and continued his run, getting it back inside the penalty area as the crowd implored him to shoot.
He would eventually, but had to first make sure of his angles like any good midfielder. Henderson skipped inside Ardian Ismajli and shot across him into the far corner. A lovely goal – but Albania by now looked ragged.
So no surprise when they conceded again, within five minutes. This time it was Sterling, surging through the middle and releasing Kane on the left.
He shouldn’t have been able to get a shot away from there but Albania were is disarray and his confidence was soaring.
The defence gave Kane sight of goal and his left foot did the rest. Strakosha was left exposed, but perhaps should have done better, too.
And so we headed into first-half injury time. England won a corner on the right which Ben Chilwell took. An obvious inswinger.
Obvious to all but the Albanian defence, apparently, who had also mysteriously decided that Kane posed no threat, despite the recent evidence. The ball sailed over the six yard box and found England’s captain alone again, unnaturally. He pivoted, volleyed, and scored a goal befitting a far grander occasion.
This felt more like a contractual obligation than a match; much as it will come Monday when England’s presence in Qatar will become official.
Sportsmail's Kieran Lynch provided live build-up and updates from England's clash against Albania.