England v Switzerland: Friendly warning as Three Lions do have reasons to celebrate tonight

Football without competition, prizes, jeopardy, is pretty meaningless but be careful what you wish for.

Portugal, Sweden and Cameroon would rather be playing a dead rubber this weekend than preparing for World Cup play-offs like the one European champions Italy were knocked out of on Thursday. Senegal could do without a repeat of the African Cup of Nations final against Egypt when they complete their play-off on Tuesday.

If Kyle Walker-Peters, Marc Guehi and/or Tyrick Mitchell win first caps, tonight’s 5.30pm game will be a big deal. If Nick Pope and/or Fraser Forster get a chance to show their goalkeeping credentials, it will be important for them. If Harry Kane scores twice to reach 50 international goals, it will be cause for celebration. If Jude Bellingham, Conor Gallagher and James Ward-Prowse show their midfield credentials or Ben White and Ollie Watkins improve their chances of being selected for Qatar, that will be significant. If Harry Maguire can claw back a bit of confidence, that matters.

Wearing the Three Lions at Wembley should always count for something, just not all that much tonight.

But the absence of an Italy team who earlier this week were talking about wanting to win the tournament, the possibility of Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic missing out for footballing reasons rather than old age was an important reminder: despite England’s attempts to make it look otherwise, and even in this era when tournaments are expanding more rapidly than FIFA’s bank account, qualifying for World Cups is actually bloody hard.

It is 1994 since England last missed the boat and did we not like that.

In the years since, they have increasingly made qualifying look a bit of a doddle.

They scored 39 goals in 10 unbeaten qualifiers this time, only dropping four points. Their plus-36 goal difference was Europe’s best.

What is most impressive about Gareth Southgate’s team is that unlike Sven-Goran Eriksson, Fabio Capello or Roy Hodgson’s, they can do it in big tournaments too – semi-finalists at the last World Cup and the 2019 Nations League (is that a big tournament? It is too early for history to decide) and a penalty shoot-out from winning their first European Championship.

“I think that’s where our players did so well to recover from the emotion of the (European) final,” says Southgate, putting Italy’s double World Cup failure into an English perspective. “To perform as they did in the autumn was absolutely fantastic.

“It’s easily under-estimated. Qualifying always is.”

Asked if he had a wry smile when he heard of Italy’s fate, Jordan Henderson slipped straight into ultra-professional mode. Playing for a team desperately trying to chase down Manchester City in the Premier League whilst competing for the FA and European Cups, boring professionalism is the only option.

“I’m not really interested,” insisted the Liverpool midfielder. “I’m concentrated on what we need to do and the teams that will be at the World Cup.

“But I think it does show how difficult qualification can be and we sometimes take it for granted.

“Consistency is key in any great team. When you haven’t won so much the desire to win is huge and it’s a different challenge when you end up getting over the line. The best teams cope with that in the best way.

“Italy are a fantastic side as they proved in the Euros but different challenges come after that, the emotional element after winning such a big tournament.

“I’m sure they’ll learn a lot from the experience they’ve had over the past year and probably be better from it.”

With no major trophy in the cabinet since 1966, England are not a great international team, but they are great qualifiers and as Southgate and Henderson point out, that is not something to ever take for granted.

So embrace the nothingness tonight. It is a lot better than the alternative.