Tuesday's World Cup semi-final between France and Spain was in some ways a good night for England.
Favourites France were unceremoniously dumped out of the competition without laying a glove on the European champions, who beat Les Bleus en route to their Euro 2024 triumph two years ago.
The bad news is that so convincing were Spain in victory that it makes a potential final with Luis de la Fuente's men an even more daunting prospect.
However, England did have an immediate beneficiary to the result in Jude Bellingham. No France player, not even Kylian Mbappe, has played well enough to consider themselves strong Golden Ball contenders having failed to reach the final, and the Real Madrid star will likely be benched for the third-place play-off.
It means a number of Spain stars have been cut to win the Golden Ball, with Jude Bellingham now 9/4 second favourite behind Lionel Messi, whose hopes of a third Golden Ball likely hinge on La Albiceleste beating the old enemy on Wednesday night.
Bellingham has been outstanding for England at the World Cup and has been Thomas Tuchel's most influential player. He scored against Croatia in the group game, and while he was below his best against Ghana, he did take the Player of the Match award.
He won Player of the Match again having scored and assisted against Panama. It was Harry Kane's turn to step up against DR Congo, though Bellingham could have twice scored with headers.
The former Borussia Dortmund and Birmingham City man was outstanding against Mexico, particularly as England were backs-to-the-wall for the final half an hour, and he once again came up with the goods against Norway to book a place in the World Cup semi-final.
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