It was a night when Gareth Southgate shuffled his pack extensively and asked whether a number of players on the fringes of his England team could cope with the weight of the shirt. By full time, with Ivory Coast demoralised and dismantled, the manager had an emphatic answer.
From first to last, this was a procession, the visitors seemingly wanting to be elsewhere – ideally the playoffs for Africa’s five World Cup spots which were going on without them. The Elephants had said goodbye to the circus when they finished second to Cameroon at the group phase of qualification.
