What worries me more than Harry Kane’s form going into Tuesday's clash with Germany is that England’s all-round game hasn’t been good enough for us to simply bat off expectation around such a fixture.
By 8pm, we will have faced two of our three biggest rivals in world football within the space of 11 days, with only Argentina missing.
And nothing I saw in the Scotland game suggested there is nothing to worry about mentally when it comes to such an iconic tie.
I’ve heard several England players brushing off questions about the weight of history around this game by pointing out they weren’t even born 1996, let alone 1990.
But I just don’t buy the idea that it makes it just another fixture because they will have had the importance of these rivalries repeatedly rammed down their throats over the years.
So Tuesday night will be a big marker about their ability to handle this kind of pressure and we’ll see how they get on.
Although what I do know, and it’s something Gareth Southgate and the FA need praising for, is that it won’t be the end of the world if they do crash out, as it was for Paul Ince, Tony Adams and that generation.
They know they will go back to their clubs and not get crucified for it and that, win or lose, it will ultimately be an experience that will stand them in good stead with a World Cup 18 months away.
What I am particularly looking forward to is the battle of the frontmen, with Harry Kane at one end, and Thomas Muller and Serge Gnabry at the other.
I just hope Kane plays less of the Muller role of dropping off than he has so far this tournament.
When Muller does that, he has Gnabry ahead of him and often Robin Gosens and Joshua Kimmich as well.
But when Kane does it, it’s only Sterling and unless we see our full-backs or wing-backs, or Jack Grealish, Phil Foden and Bukayo Saka, bombing past him in a way that they haven’t so far then there will be times that Germany’s back three have a cigar on.
What I want to see is Kane operating only within the width of the 18-yard box and never too far away from it, because that is where he will have his most joy.
A goal might come off his backside or his shin but it doesn’t matter, because once that goal goes in it will be like the weight of the world is off his shoulders.
And what’s more, if he scores the winner, then everything that has happened so far will go out of the window.
This game is a massive opportunity for him and if he can lead England through it then it will go to another level.
Football will be coming home, we’ll be saying we have a really good side of the draw, that the Dutch, Portugal and Germany are out, that Belgium possibly won’t have Kevin De Bruyne, that we’ve beaten the old enemy and broken the glass ceiling.
We’ll see about that.
But whatever happens, it will be a massive, massive step in the right direction.
