Meaningful matches between major tournaments can be hard or the England football team to come by, so no wonder Thomas Tuchel was so excited to set up a "final" against Spain on Sunday.

In reality, it is nothing of the sort. All that will be at stake at kick-off in the Metropolitano Stadium at 7.45pm is who wins Nations League A Group 3, and gets a home second leg in March's quarter-finals, but it makes sense for the coach to big it up.

Because if anything, England find matches between tournaments too easy. They qualified for the last World Cup without conceding a goal, yet found it hard work in America and Mexico.

The Nations League is supposed to match equals, yet they ran out 7-0 winners in Croatia in October. That Thursday's 2-1 win in the reverse game was much tighter was cause for celebration with Tuchel.

"Because we didn't take our chances it was a tight match, which is good overall," he reflected, “because it can't always be glamorous and super-exciting. Sometimes it's about being serious and determined.

"We got the job done.

"We wanted a final, and on Sunday in Spain we have it."

Tuchel might rest the man he says is still his first-choice goalkeeper, Jordan Pickford, to give Leeds United's James Trafford another chance, slightly undermining his billing of the game.

BRIDESMAIDS: England have lost the last two European Championship finals (Image: Lars Baron/Getty Images)

placeholder image — BRIDESMAIDS: England have lost the last two European Championship finals (Image: Lars Baron/Getty Images)

But Trafford is getting his chance because he is performing so well and other changes will be more likely to strengthen England, with Ezri Konsa and Djed Spence likely to be available after injury and Miles Lewis-Skelly having served a one-match ban.

The narrative around this generation of England players is that they are flat-track bullies, brilliant in qualifying but flaky in finals and semi-finals, or whenever they come up against the world's elite.

World and European champions Spain won 3-2 at Wembley in September, so only need a draw.

They beat England in the last European Championship final, the second in a row the Three Lions had been tamed in. They lost this year's World Cup semi-final to Argentina and started the nearly-men cycle with a last-four defeat to Croatia in 2018.

PSYCHOLOGY: England coach Thomas Tuchel (Image: John Walton - Pool/Getty Images)

When they got to the Nations League semi-finals in 2019, poor defending by John Stones and Kyle Walker saw them lose 3-1 to the Netherlands in extra-time.

So no, Sunday is not a "final", a huge occasion, a do-or-die moment for Tuchel's team. But it will not do them any harm to think so.