England’s last meeting with France came in Saint-Denis five years ago, in what was only Gareth Southgate’s eighth game in charge. The world champions in waiting went down to 10 men that night - Raphael Varane seeing red at the start of the second half, when the score was still level at 2-2 - and a formative, character-building win briefly appeared on the cards. Yet even then, Didier Deschamps’ side deservedly came out on top through an Ousmane Dembélé winner.
It was an entertaining end-of-season friendly with little riding on the result but the defeat and failure to make the most of the man advantage demonstrated how far England had to go before they could be considered among the very best in the international game. “There is no magic wand,” their manager warned. And yet just a year later, had a few things gone differently, their next meeting might have come in a World Cup final.
