A chunk of the opening 45 minutes was spent anticipating what England’s assistant coach Anthony Barry would say during his half-time TV debrief.
Barry’s withering critique of the display at the mid-point of the win over Croatia last week made for brilliant viewing. Here, he was more measured.
“Overall, it’s been absolutely okay half, from our point of view,” he said. “Again, we probably expected to be a difficult challenge, difficult opponent.
“They defend deep, deep, deep, probably even deeper than we expected, ten, 12 metres deeper than the last two opponents that they played against.
“The spaces are really condensed between the lines and then they have this incredible speed that they can also cover the spaces, so it’s been difficult to break them down, so the headline for us is probably patience.
“Patience in the game, continue to attack with a stable base because Ghana are a team that have exceptional counterattack options, and we’ve negated that so far.
“And overall, just stay with it with a team that’s always been able to open the game up with a set piece, or with our boys on the bench, or the message is, patience, and just keep going.”