Craig Bellamy made the point beforehand that a boxing promoter would not put these opponents in the ring together; the gulf in class was just too great. It was possible to remember the words of the Wales manager as England surged into a 3-0 lead inside 20 minutes. It felt like a technical knockout, this friendly over with indecent haste.
Thomas Tuchel had stood by the players who had ignited his England tenure in September with the 5-0 World Cup qualifying win against Serbia in Belgrade, the buildup dominated by his omissions of Jude Bellingham, in particular, and Phil Foden. The manager simply wanted his team to build on the momentum they had generated, the excitement they created.
It was not as if Wembley was electrified, the Super Tommy Tuchel energy coursing everywhere. Wales were so poor in the first half that it did not feel like a fair fight. But there was still plenty for Tuchel to like ahead of the trip to play Latvia in Riga on Tuesday when his team could seal automatic qualification to the World Cup.
It was not a night when Bellingham or Foden were missed. Morgan Rogers made sure of that, excelling in the No 10 role. He opened the scoring with his first England goal and set up the second for Ollie Watkins, who played in place of the injured Harry Kane. Bukayo Saka was good, too, adding one of his specials for the third and that was basically that.
