As Harry Kane stepped up to make it 3-0 to England with the final kick of the first half at a wet, chilly and deflated Daugava Stadium it was strange to think that there was a time when the very act of reaching a major tournament was an event in its own right.
It is not supposed to be this much of a doddle. Qualifying was once a nerve-shredding experience. It could make or break reputations and even provided some of the most iconic moments in the history of English football: the euphoria of David Beckham’s free-kick against Greece in 2001, the bloody‑minded defiance of Paul Ince in Rome in 1997 or, at the other end of the spectrum, the farce of Steve McClaren’s umbrella at Wembley in 2007, the agony of Graham Taylor in Rotterdam in 1993 and the shock of Jan Tomaszewski’s heroics in goal for Poland against Sir Alf Ramsey’s England in 1973.
