A match that could be the making of Tuchel's England

The first thing the England players are likely to notice is “the banging”, “the noise”, especially as they embark down that famously long tunnel. It’s certainly what Harry Kane remembers, as one of the few squad members to have played in the Marakana.

- MIGUEL DELANEY CHIEF FOOTBALL WRITER

“Pretty hostile environment,” Kane smiles now. “Just walking from the changing room to the pitch. It feels like a mile-long walk. There are a lot of fans, you hear a lot of noise, a lot of banging. That was pretty hostile.”

That long walk may then end with an abrupt sharpening of England’s entire World Cup qualifying campaign. The extremes of the setting are almost fitting because this game could be the most significant of the entire group. Serbia’s tricky 1-0 win away to Latvia put them within five points of England with a game in hand, while pulling away from the rest.

“If we win the game, we're really close to securing qualification,” Kane summed up. “If we don’t, it makes the next camp a lot trickier.”

Consequently, Kane admits there's an old-fashioned sense of buildup among the camp. It's a bit like how big qualifiers used to feel in the 1980s, which is actually the last time that England played in Belgrade. A 1987 qualifier for Euro '88 brought a 4-1 victory.

The stakes of this are only heightened by the state of the relationships between the countries. It is part of Serbian fan culture to make every match loud and intimidating, but recent history will only amplify the atmosphere here.

The Nato bombing of 1999 understandably colours most opinion about western Europe, to the point that Nemanja Vidic made a point of not wearing a poppy when at Manchester United. That has informed Serbia's alignment with Vladimir Putin, while the self-determination of Kosovo is one of the primary political topics in the country. There, the UK is celebrated - with children named after Tony Blair - which probably indicates a lot about contrasting attitudes on the Serbian side. Belgrade features some pristine graffiti displays about attacking Kosovo again.