When it comes to the World Cup, you can’t polish a third

And then there was one. Well, two actually, but the World Cup third-place play-off is definitely one of those nominally competitive fixtures which presents a fairly robust challenge to my old friend Declan Lynch’s wise maxim that there’s never a good reason not to watch a football match.

You suspect that even the loyalty and resolve of the two teams’ respective support bases will be further tested by the fact that today’s meeting of Belgium and England in St Petersburg is the second time the nations have met in this competition with little more than bragging rights at stake.

Indeed, their previous encounter, in the final game of their group, was mainly notable for the peculiar reality that the luck of the draw meant there was always likely to be a more meaningful reward in losing than winning.