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England's progress under Fabio Capello could be deduced in minutes here. Back when Steve McClaren was blindly stumbling through his stewardship as manager, it had taken his team some 54 minutes to break down Andorra in this arena, the victory forgotten amid the vitriolic abuse directed towards dug-out and players from a disbelieving traveling support. Yet, here, the Italian was puffing his cheeks in relief some five minutes earlier. The floodgates were open, the minnows breached, the natural order apparently restored: this was progress indeed.
Capello will be happy enough that his team have started Group Six with a victory, but the Croats will hardly be quaking in their boots when their scout reports reach Zagreb. Conjure a display like this on Wednesday night and England risk humiliation. Capello's will be a very different line-up against more imposing opponents though, if they had hoped to pep confidence amid a goal-glut here, they arguably depart Barcelona even more fragile than when they arrived. McClaren's team did at least end up winning by three, after all.
Were their mitigating circumstances? This was an unusual, if not exceptional, occasion. Rarely are teams confronted by blanket defence. Andorra conceded that they would not be able to match England's possession and, with a quintet across their back-line and four unambitious midfielders kicking anything in red that moved in the centre, asked Fernando Silva to do his best alone against England's rearguard. David James touched the ball four times in the first period, and none of them to deny shots. Premier League players â€" even at top four clubs confronted by newly promoted teams fearful of a battering â€" rarely face situations as uncompetitive this. It was effectively a training match, pitting attack against cluttered defence, with the pressure issued forth from the stands making it all horribly awkward.
There, though, the sympathy has to stop. The boos first grumbled, then chorused, as soon as the chants bemoaning the Football Association's choice of digital broadcasting partners had fizzled out. Frustration had set in by the interval and everyone present had the right to have expected so much more. The delivery from the flanks had been as miserable as it was inexcusable. Andorra's journeymen would not have coped had the standard of crossing been that of the Championship, let alone the Premier League. Theo Walcott was eager on the turf, and reached the by-line twice in the opening three minutes, but his accuracy deserted him too often. Even so, he offered far more of a threat than poor Stewart Downing.
The Middlesbrough winger can rip full-backs to shreds domestically. He performed well against Trinidad and Tobago in the friendly back in May - yes, admittedly, T&T - but this was all too much for him. His first corner struck the defender at the near post. His second was claimed by the goalkeeper. The free-kicks veered in from deep rarely found their man while, from open play, form and confidence drained visibly amid a hideous mixture of over and under-hit passes. His substitution at the interval was a mercy. That Joe Cole scored within five minutes of the re-start will have done little to raise his spirits.
The wingers appeared the main culprits because they were attempting the final passes into dangerous areas, but others were just as guilty. John Terry pumped three long balls into touch in the first period, his centre-half partner Joleon Lescott appearing somewhat unassured at his side. Theirs was a sense of relief when the substitute thumped his team ahead, the second goal - wonderfully worked by Gareth Barry and Wayne Rooney - offered a brief flash of class amid the unsatisfactory huff and puff.
So what, if anything, did we actually learn? Primarily that the team that trots out in Zagreb on Wednesday must be appreciably different to that which eventually prevailed here. Joe Cole's inclusion will be demanded. So, too, is that of David Beckham (granted a 10 minute cameo here) for all that Walcott offered some refreshing pace to a pedestrian line-up. England will need their former captain's dead-ball delivery when they are put under the cosh in Croatia. Beckham should offer a threat and, while he is clearly far from the player he was (his performance against the Czech Republic offered a reminder of his decline), his experience might provide something approaching a calming influence. That, at least, has to be the hope.
Rio Ferdinand, if he has recovered from his back injury, will start alongside Terry and Emile Heskey's brawn might be more useful to Capello's line-up than a Jermain Defoe starved of service. Regardless, that trip east feels more daunting now. The talk in the build-up to this game had centred upon pleas for patience and the hope that this team's confidence might be buoyed for the challenge ahead by a rampant victory. There was little riotous about this. For Capello, proof of progress - any progress - must come at the Maksimir next week.
