Ruthless England’s Euros 8-0 looks less of a freak result than past thrashings | Jonathan Wilson

Huge victories do not always carry deep meaning but Norway melted when faced by the hosts’ startling aggression

Bobby Charlton was performing his national service in Shrewsbury when Manchester United played their first home European tie. He got a lift up to Maine Road (Old Trafford’s first set of floodlights was still being installed) with a Sgt-Maj White and watched enthralled as Matt Busby’s young side beat Anderlecht 10-0 to complete a 12-0 aggregate victory. In the mess the next day, Charlton found it almost impossible to convince people that United had been brilliant: 10-0, they insisted, was a measure less of United’s excellence than of how weak the Belgian champions must be.

That’s the problem with emphatic victories: they can almost devalue themselves – particularly when they come in circumstances of relative unfamiliarity. Nobody doubted Germany’s 7-1 victory over the hosts in the semi-finals of the 2014 men’s World Cup was a stunning result because, however infected Brazil were by the hysteria of the occasion, however laughably they defended, they were still Brazil.