Reporter notebook: Why England's 7-0 victory in Croatia is angrifying for every fan

That was it. That was THE England performance. The one we all knew they were capable of. The one that the captain, Harry Kane, had repeatedly told us was lurking just under the surface, but which he knew they hadn't quite been able to sustain for a full 90 minutes.

When it came, for the 100 fans watching in the stadium and the millions at home, it was thrilling, inspiring and fulfilling.

But it was also angrifying, for every England supporter.

Because that is the England we want to see in the biggest games at the key moments in major tournaments. The sort of performance that beats the best opposition in the world when it really matters, and leads us to the holy grail of a shiny trophy. That probably sounds churlish. Because this was an important game, a competitive game.

Croatia are a top footballing nation, ranked 14th in the FIFA world rankings, and England humbled them in their own backyard. And maybe that performance is an important milestone, a blueprint to show how England can and should play on the international stage, and towards the players truly believing they can beat the world's best.

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But let's not forget that exactly a week before, England had played the world's best. And lost. With another "nearly" performance against Spain, the reigning World and European champions.

What the victory in Rijeka has surely done is cast the despair and anger at the manner of England's World Cup exit into the darkest corners of the supporters' memories. The hangover has been eased, and that is important for the belief in Thomas Tuchel going forward. Because make no mistake, at the start of this extended international break, the England head coach was under real pressure.

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The tactical decisions taken to go hyper-defensive in the latter stages of the World Cup semi-final against Argentina was met with fury from England fans - and some England players. That led to doubts - credible doubts - about Tuchel's future. In the early parts of this international camp, he looked moody, distracted, brooding. He was clearly angered by the pesky media who kept dragging up issues around that defeat to Argentina two months earlier in Atlanta.

By contrast, what we saw in the tiny Rijeka Stadium on the edge of the Adriatic Sea was the epitome of how Tuchel wants his team to play. Pace, power, quick passing, forward passing, high pressing, dynamic movement, ruthless finishing. That is surely what the German coach means when he says he wants his England to play in "the Premier League way".

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England's front four were irresistible. Harry Kane told me after the game that they now have a unique understanding which leads to new levels of "fluidity", where they can all switch positions, fill in for one another right across the pitch, and by doing so pull an opponent's defence to pieces. It is reminiscent of the 'Total Football' Johan Cruyff's Netherlands side created in the 1970s. Tuchel would call those special "connections" - that innate understanding between individual players that pushes them to new heights of performance. He has been calling for it to become second nature for England's "core group of senior players" ever since he took the top job.

While it is gladdening and heartening to see England play like this, there are, however, still some provisos. Some "Yeah, but…" sentiments.

Firstly, this is clearly one of the worst incarnations of the recently great Croatian football sides. Slaven Bilic knows he has his work cut out to replace the generational talent that is Luka Modric who is now, finally, fading at 41 years old, and Ivan Perisic who was horribly exposed by Bukayo Saka, and who is only four years Modric's junior. Technically and positionally, Croatia were very poor. Physically, they were fragile. Defensively, they were woeful.

Of course, England's brilliance helped expose those failures. But we should remember that England teams often save their best performances for the autumn, in the early part of the season, when players are at their freshest and temperatures have cooled. It is no coincidence that England's players often struggle in summer tournaments, with sweltering conditions and the latent exhaustion that comes to them all at the end of an unforgiving Premier League season.

And so that leads us to ask the difficult question whether what we saw in Rijeka, that 'Premier League-style masterclass', is only achievable for England teams outside major tournaments. Kane admitted after the Euros in Germany in 2024 what he repeated after the World Cup in the US in the summer: that in neither of those competitions had England ever hit the heights they are capable of. The heights we have now seen in full technicolour in the third round of the Nations League.

We must hope, of course, that England are still evolving, still developing, still growing. Certainly, Gordon, Bellingham, Anderson and - the newly-capped smooth technician that is Alex Scott - will only improve in the years to come. And maybe we will look back at this game in Croatia as a key moment in England's progression, when the players proved to themselves, and the world, that they are capable of taking the next step. The crucial step, that ends with their name engraved on a trophy.

But until they can replicate what we have just watched, on the biggest stage against the biggest opponents, we will all still wonder. And worry.