The FA didn’t light up the Wembley arch and Gareth Southgate’s England players didn’t light up the field. This was a night of football that many would rather quickly forget.
One of those will be Jordan Henderson, booed on and off the pitch as captain by a section of England fans who cannot see beyond his recent decision to leave the Premier League for Saudi Arabia.
This is football in 2023, at times. Political, complicated, sensitive and, on this occasion, utterly unfulfilling.
It is not often we say this about Southgate’s England.