Once more, England were affected by the “Hand of God” but, this time, Diego Maradona’s divine intervention delivered them a World Cup draw that they could have hand-picked themselves.

They are in Group G with Belgium, Tunisia and first-timers Panama. Maradona – resplendent in a garish yellow bow tie nestled on a black shirt – drew out their ball and the rich irony was not lost on England nor draw host Gary Lineker who commented, in a line he was clearly desperate to deliver, that “Diego has always been good with his hands”.

The Argentine cheated and knocked England out of the 1986 World Cup in the quarter-finals (a stage they would accept in Russia next summer) when Lineker was tournament top-scorer. “I thought Gary captured that well,” Gareth Southgate said later.

The England manager spoke of facing the unknown and the very well known after a draw which, despite the cautious qualification he placed on it, means there is no excuse if they again fail to get through to the knockout stages.

In fact, Southgate looked a relieved man – so much for his poker-face – and even name-checked the fact that he avoided the likes of “serious contenders” Brazil and, from Pot Four, “really dangerous” Serbia.

Southgate will also be relieved that having decided to base England the other side of St Petersburg, they do not face the most challenging of journeys to their group games: Tunisia in Volgograd on June 18, Panama in Novgorod on June 24 and then Belgium in Kaliningrad on June 28. A total travelling distance of 4,050 miles – less than the 6,000-plus, and different time-zones, it could have been.