There must have been times as the interval approached when even Gareth Southgate, such a staunch believer in the talent of this youthful group, found himself peering in disbelief up at the big screen at one end of this bowl of an arena. The list of English goalscorers had become cluttered by then, the board increasingly untidy if gloriously lopsided. The eerie silence in Rijeka last week had felt surreal but the stunned hush among the locals in Andalusia was far harder to comprehend.

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This was a vindication of everything Southgate is trying to achieve with this group. The bravery of his selection, with the youngest side England have put out in 59 years, and execution of their instructions had been rewarded in that opening period, when they carried a threat with each attack and the Spanish were duly shredded.

Times were dicier after the interval, inevitably, but the visitors’ giddy support were bellowing the manager’s name from their vantage point up in the Gods by the end. Southgate’s team may be World Cup semi-finalists but they had succumbed to Belgium and Croatia in competitive games, to France and Germany in friendlies. But that familiar criticism, that they always come unstuck against proper pedigree, no longer applies. The scoreboard proved as much.

The doubts over the ability of this front-line to function ruthlessly can be ditched too. Perhaps Spain had been coaxed into complacency given their opponents’ recent splutters. Harry Kane may have been the tournament’s golden boot winner in the summer but he arrived here after six matches without a goal (and left, ecstatic, with a seventh to his name). Raheem Sterling’s drought at this level extended over three years. Marcus Rashford, the only previous scorer this season, had missed those two gilt-edged chances on the Adriatic coast. In that context, and against an apparently revived team unbeaten in competitive fixtures at home since 2003, the manager’s pre-match insistence that he boasted “outstanding attacking talents” seemed bold.

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More convincing still was their performance. Witness that efficiency in front of goal, a fluid front-line slicing through Sergio Ramos et al at pace, their cause helped by a midfield bursting with snap and energy, and a goalkeeper in Jordan Pickford whose distribution, pinging pinpoint passes under pressure into Kane’s feet, was another weapon in the armoury. Eric Dier had set the tone within 18 seconds, biting into Sergio Busquets to leave a player who had orchestrated the win at Wembley last month hopping in discomfort. He would not be permitted to dictate again. Ramos would be wiped out by the same player’s follow-through 11 minutes in. The caution was probably worth the trouble.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Harry Kane rises above Sergio Busquets on what was a difficult night for the Spaniard. Photograph: Soccrates Images/Getty Images

“You know Sergio Ramos and Busquets will run the game if we allow them to,” Southgate said. “Between them they have more caps than our entire squad. So we did talk about the mentality of going into the game: there’s how you want to play with or without the ball, but also the mentality you have to show to come to a place like this and win. You have to show the nous with tactical awareness, but also the nerve to go and take those guys on. That’s what, hopefully, the players will have taken the most from this evening. They’ve played with quality at times before, but their mentality tonight was good.”

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Harry Winks and Ross Barkley were ever eager to flick passes over a back-line whose desire to push up-field was self-destructive at times. Those wide-open spaces were an invitation into which poured a trio of forwards revived. The slicing threat of Sterling and Rashford took the breath away, their eagerness to collect and then spin beyond Kane, acting so often almost as a deeper pivot to the counterattacks, dragging their markers out of position. The captain’s was an excellent if selfless display. He must have craved reward of his own, and would have merited it, but he revelled nevertheless in his role as supply line.

Sterling’s moment had finally come just after the quarter-hour mark, the finish he ripped beyond David de Gea an outpouring of all that frustration through 30 hours and 23 minutes of football and 27 scoreless caps. Yet the conversion capped a counter-attack the like of which Spain in their pomp would have been proud: Pickford’s fizzed pass under pressure to Kane’s feet just inside enemy territory; a spin and clipped pass to spread the play to a marauding Rashford; a precise diagonal for Sterling to collect on the gallop ahead of Marcos Alonso. There was a touch, a glance and a finish dispatched emphatically into the top corner. The tentative Sterling was no more.

The same might apply to Rashford, who had appeared to quail when given time to contemplate his finishes against Croatia, as he calmly stroked the second beyond his club-mate from Kane’s fine pass. All semblance of Spanish resistance had evaporated by the time Barkley was striking that wonderful pass beyond Alonso and Ramos for Kane, a player who had enjoyed a solitary touch in the Croatia box last week, to square for Sterling to tap home. In the space of 22 minutes the latter had doubled his haul at this level over a career that is approaching its sixth anniversary.

Spain would rattle up their shot tally and possession percentage after the interval, the home fans wailing in disbelief at the non-award of penalties or the quivering of English woodwork, but the visitors had already inflicted enough damage to prevail. This was their night, one that Southgate and his players should cherish. A new standard has been set.