Glorious parade of good games and la

compelling matches from one end of the day to the next, England are part of the entertainment.

Like a Kieran Trippier dead ball, the English have come sailing in from the corner of World Cup action to live in the centre, where the smiles are. Nizhny Novgorod even looked pleased to have England in town, for a seven-goal game and trouble-free festivities. The usual English darkness and neurosis was nowhere to be seen in a place where, in common with all the host cities, not watching a game runs the risk of missing out on some late flourish or wonderful free-kick.

Without the dramas on the pitch, good organisation and fine stadiums are mere ticks on a bureaucrat’s sheet – pluses for Fifa and the Kremlin. But this group phase has been a parade of good games and plot twists, enacted by players who appear to care as much about international football as they do the big pay days of the club game. There are exceptions. Argentina look dysfunctional and Germany have slipped from their imperious high of four years ago, yet, for the most part, teams from all continents are running across Russian turf with remarkable intensity.

There has not yet been a 0-0 draw in this tournament: the longest wait for a stalemate in World Cup history. Russia, Belgium and England headed the goalscoring league with eight each. England scored twice from corners against Tunisia; two of their six against Panama were from the same starting point, with two penalties also contributing to the total. There is no sense, however, of Gareth Southgate’s team being mechanical, set-play plotters. Dead-ball expertise complements their assertive forward play.

England’s resurgence – against two of the tournament’s weakest teams – fits the spirit of the age, where crowd violence, oppressive policing and bigotry have yet to significantly intrude (which is not to say they never will).

One of the few eruptions of vile prejudice can be traced to Sweden, of all places, where Jimmy Durmaz was racially abused for conceding a free-kick, which Toni Kroos converted with the latest winning goal in World Cup history. That