For Thomas Tuchel, there was an unmistakable circularity, a pleasingness to the narrative arc. The England head coach began his tenure with a World Cup qualifying victory against Albania at Wembley last March. And he finished the first phase of the mission to add a second star to the shirt with another one – by the same scoreline in Tirana.
It is surely worth taking a moment to digest the headline numbers. This was England’s eighth qualifying win out of eight and an eighth clean sheet. Never before has a European team gone through World Cup qualification – playing at least six matches – without letting in a goal. It is a record to fire hope, which has sent out a message.
The story here was one of England lengthening their stride from around the hour mark. Before then, the game had been tight but there was encouragement to be found in how Tuchel’s team stayed cool and made their punches count, how they once again used their strength off the bench. And got a set piece to work. At the heart of everything was an inevitability. It was Harry Kane who got the goals.
Bukayo Saka had been summoned as a substitute and when he went to take a corner, it was the first time he had done so during the campaign. Seconds later, the ball had flicked off the Albania left-back, Naser Aliji, and there was Kane to turn home from point-blank range.
