1. England’s World Cup taking shape?
Was it the perfect night? Beating the 16th, 18th, 19th and 20th ranked teams in the world to make the quarter-final makes that a trick question.
Perfection is a chimera when you are an England fan because triumphs over lesser teams are often an invitation to hubris.
England have been like Goldilocks in the way they approach knockout football in the World Cup – except they never find the porridge that’s just right.
It’s about losing to the first good team England play in a knockout round. That’s the baggage, and legacy.
That is the history that must be banished on Saturday when they face holders France in a mouth-watering quarter-final.
That is when it is certain, nails will be chewed, and fans will retreat behind the sofa in their homes.
2. Calm England blow Senegal away
Three goals from Jordan Henderson, Harry Kane and Bukayo Sako. No penalties. No VAR geometry lessons.
England were at times slick, and with the exception of a rocky spell midway through the first half, they blew Senegal away.
The African champions were made to look uncharacteristically ordinary for the most part, so England can bask in the victory for a while before plotting their game against France’s first-rate counter attackers.
3. Monkey off Kane’s back
The England captain shifted the monkey off his back with his first goal at the tournament against Senegal.
Kane, who carries a huge weight of expectation, said he knew it would come, and declared later it felt impossibly good.
The goal left Kane just one behind Wayne Rooney’s all-time record of 53 England goals and he now has the perfect stage to write a fresh page in the history books.
4. French swagger
The World Cup holders look beatable, yet they rarely lose. In some ways, like Zinedine Zidane’s Real Madrid a few years back.
The game against Poland showed France can be frustrated, but they have Mbappe, the man who can take them wherever they want to go.
He has shown he cannot be left alone for a moment, so good luck to whoever plays right-back for England in the quarter-final.
Then, there’s Old Man Olivier Giroud who just keeps rolling to help enrich a display of French swagger.
France have been far from perfect, including in their 3-1 win against Poland in the last-16, but no team have blown everyone away in Qatar.
They said a rested Mbappe would run riot against the Poles. He did exactly that with two thrilling finishes, but not before Giroud’s history-breaking finish that broke Poland’s resistance.
Meanwhile, a twice-taken Robert Lewandowski penalty for Poland was merely a late footnote.
5. A speed merchant and a ‘go kart’
Paris St Germain star Mbappe is the fastest footballer in the world having clocked an incredible top speed of 36km/h. Before last night’s game, one of the Poles said that you’d need a motorbike to stop him.
It’s not just his breathtaking pace that will make your head spin. His first goal in the second half against Poland was despatched at 47km per hour at a spin ratio of 2.8 revs per second.
His second scorcher was equally hard and fast. He made a pistol gesture after his second strike. It really was gunfire.
The 23-year-old, who celebrates his next birthday two days before the final, becomes the first ever player to score eight World Cup goals before his 24th birthday.
With five goals and two assists, he has been directly involved in each of France’s last seven goals at the World Cup.
AC Milan striker Giroud, who was once mocked by France’s Ballon d’Or winner, Karim Benzema, as a “go kart” compared to his Formula One skills, also showed how dangerous he is.
In Benzema’s absence from the tournament due to injury, Giroud scored the first goal just before half-time and became France’s all-time leading goalscorer with 52 goals, one goal ahead of Thierry Henry who held the record for 13 years.