“Three men in a studio, Gary Lineker pre-senting!” And so to the biggest day in English sports broadcasting for 12 years as our brave pundits gathered for an England appearance in a World Cup quarter-final. Lights, camera, action: football’s coming home. Apparently.

English hearts fluttered and for all concerned reassurance could be taken from the fact the BBC were in charge of proceedings. No offence to ITV, and especially so after their fine handling of the last-16 victory over Colombia – This Is The One and all that – but on an afternoon when patriotic fervour was cranked up to 11, it felt right that the nation’s broadcaster should lead the way. It’s what the Queen would have wanted. More than that, it’s what Sir Bobby Charlton would have wanted, even if he was, somewhat oddly, sitting on Centre Court watching tennis.

And it was the tennis which gave away to BBC One’s coverage from Russia. Come 2pm it was a case of goodbye Rafael Nadal and hello to the surprise sound of Danny “trotters” Dyer leading viewers into the opening sequence. And then there he was – Lineker; head up, eyes trained, ready to deliver. And boy, did he deliver.

“Good afternoon. Where’s Des Lynam when you need him? He always hit the spot, a bit like England.” A cracking opening line but what we’ve come to expect from the accomplished striker-turned-accomplished host. What was less expected, however, was the make-up of the men sat to Lineker’s right in the BBC’s airy Moscow base. Alan Shearer – check, Rio Ferdinand – check, Frank Lamp – hang on, that’s not Frank Lampard. That’s ... Jürgen Klinsmann.

The BBC’s decision to ditch its tried and tested England team and bring in a German was a bold one, particularly at this stage in the competition, but Klinsmann is no novice to the punditry game and his appearance made for a lovely moment early on as Lineker reminded the former forward of the time Germany’s Euro ‘96-winning squad sang their own version of Three Lions during their homecoming in Frankfurt. “You took the trophy and the song” said the host. Another nice line. Another reminder we were in safe hands.

And that’s pretty much how it remained during another glorious, anticipation-building day for England at this World Cup. The modern pundit comes in for a lot of criticism – I’m as guilty as anyone – but most do well in a role that is almost certainly harder than it looks. And it is never more tricky than at times like this, when tub-thumping has to be combined with calm analysis and, on the whole, Lineker, Shearer and Ferdinand provided that alongside the naturally neutral contributions of the German among them.

Over in Samara things were a little more heated, which was not a huge surprise given Martin Keown was on co-commentary duties, a man who is to eyebrow-raising statements what Joachim Löw is to sniffing his own fingers. According to the former defender shortly after being introduced by main commentator Guy Mowbray, England’s run at this World Cup has led to people in this country “falling back in love with football”, an observation that ignores the fact people in this country absolutely love football all the time.

There followed more Keownisms, most notably in the second-half when the 51-year-old told people who read books to “get a life”, and at one stage I worried for his health, but Keown survived and, it could be argued, was perfectly reflective of the occasion – England dominating a World Cup quarter-final.

So on to the semi-final in Moscow, when ITV will again be charge. It may not be what the nation wants but it’s what the nation is getting and Mark Pougatch and his team are sure to do a good job as long as they remember to combine cool heads with the right amount of giddy patriotism.

That’s what Lineker and co achieved on Saturday – not getting carried away but not underplaying things either, as seen with how the BBC’s coverage ended; clips of the defeat to West Germany at Italia ‘90 followed by Lineker insisting “it’s coming home” while staring at the World Cup trophy. A little bit of everything, a little bit of what we need right now.