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It helps that Gareth Southgate has created a club-style togetherness with this group. Southgate was at Saturday’s final with UEFA’s technical observers and his admiration of how Klopp and Pochettino connect with their players was evident yet the England coach has had his own success in selling a vision to his players.

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Simon Hart, away reporter There was so nearly a second goal for Liverpool on the stroke of half-time, with Lovren’s header, but even the staunchest Liverpool fan would settle for a one-goal advantage here given the balance of play and the efforts of Mignolet at the other end.

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Simon Hart, match reporter Looking at the record books, Portugal have beaten FYR Macedonia five times in six previous meetings, but only once with the kind of margin required tonight – that was a 4-1 win in Skopje in June 2003 with a team that included Cristiano Ronaldo, Ricardo Quaresma, Hugo Viana, Tiago, Bruno Alves and Bosingwa. 

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Leicester training begins

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Have a nice cuppa

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The front page of this morning’s Daily Telegraph offers a picture of England frustration – a fitting motif for last night’s goalless draw.  Inside, the match report is headlined ‘England pay the price as Hodgson gamble backfires’ – referring to Hodgson’s much-changed lineup – though another understandable focus of the post-mortems is the failure of his players to take their chances.  “Sturridge and Vardy had 28 caps and 10 international goals between them, which is not a lot in tournament football,” notes the Telegraph. “England's other advanced player, Adam Lallana, had not scored in 25 international matches [and his] inability to score at this level has become a problem.”

The Times dwells on the same difficulty, asking: “England brought the strikers, but where is the ruthlessness? After three games, a pattern has emerged of a Roy Hodgson team that cannot unlock its undoubted attacking potential. Restricted to one goal by Russia, forced to strain for a winner against Wales, England laboured against Slovakia last night in a manner that drew groans of frustration from some of the travelling fans.”  The Independent, meanwhile, reflects on England’s failure to offer too many serious tests of Slovakia’s goalkeeper in the second half, for all the door-knocking that they did. “There was great optimism in those early stages, just as there had been when England raced into the Russians in Marseilles as this campaign began. But just as in Marseille, the pace dropped and the well of imagination began to run dry.”

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The back page of The Times today features England’s two match-winning substitutes in Lens, Jamie Vardy and Daniel Sturridge, and Roy Hodgson’s gamble in sending the pair out earns praise in the Daily Mail which says: “He could have tried the softly-softly approach, he could have tried to unpick Wales, to unlock them with Jack Wilshere or Ross Barkley. Instead, he threw the kitchen sink at it. And no, it wasn’t greatly sophisticated. It was old-fashioned British blood and thunder. But this was an old-fashioned blood and thunder British game. Hodgson bet that England had a calibre of Premier League goal-scorer that would trouble Wales and he was proved right. Jamie Vardy, and Daniel Sturridge in particular, were too good for them.”

The Daily Express, noting that England ended with three strikers on the pitch in Vardy, Sturridge and Marcus Rashford (England’s youngest player at a major tournament), says: “Sometimes for all the focus on systems, midfield diamonds, Christmas trees or whatever, it pays to simply roll the dice, chuck on as many strikers as possible and hope for the best. If they are as talented as Jamie Vardy and Daniel Sturridge, the risks come reduced.”

According to the Daily Telegraph, Hodgson must maintain this approach now in the challenges ahead in France, starting with Monday’s meeting with Slovakia:  “Hodgson ground his way through a game and a half of this tournament with one striker, despite bringing five to France, and played the last 18 minutes here with three. Surely England now know positivity is the right weapon to make further progress at EURO 2016.”

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Three Lions rings around

The England fans break into song as Three Lions, the much-loved 1996 anthem of the England team, is played over the stadium PA. Altogether now, “It’s coming home, it’s coming home, it’s coming...”

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England's arrival at Le Bourget airport, touching down just a few minutes after Roland Garros champion Novak Djokovic had taken off ... a good omen perhaps?

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The Harry Kane 'honesty' debate

Today's English papers are still debating Harry Kane's honest response to Bruno Alves's head-high tackle last Thursday, when he stayed on his feet afterwards. Manager Roy Hodgson is quoted as saying, "I find the cynicism quite a hard thing to coach" and "I don't think it's part of our culture".

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Today's L'Equipe previews England's arrival today in Chantilly where they will be welcomed by the mayor - and where the paper estimates 430 English journalists will be based.

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Roy Hodgson's England team touch down at Paris-Le Bourget airport at 1.30pm today and their team bus is currently waiting beside my hotel here in Chantilly.

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Downtown Chantilly decked out in preparation for England's arrival