Freed from their shackles and no longer held back by past failures. For England and Sweden, this fascinating World Cup journey has been a long time coming.
It is two years since Zlatan Ibrahimovic announced his retirement from international football and nine months since Gareth Southgate dropped Wayne Rooney and signalled his intention to move into a new era.
Now, as the two nations compete in Samara, Russia, on Saturday for a place in the semi-finals of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the two superstars are little more than a distant memory—marooned thousands of miles away in America's MLS.