Sometimes, for footballers, the hardest act to follow is their own. England's penultimate World Cup qualifier against Albania in Newcastle tonight is a case in point.
More than 50,000 will pack St James' Park eagerly anticipating a theatrical reprise of Saturday's stunning 5-1 victory in Germany. Having made munchkins of Rudi Voller's team in Munich, Sven-Goran Eriksson's unchanged side will now be expected to dispatch the Albanians in similarly spectacular fashion.
It might happen. The last time a full England team appeared on Tyneside, back in 1938, Norway were comfortably beaten 4-0 and with Michael Owen in such a voracious scoring mood Albania could go the same way.
Yet this should not be an easy assumption to make. So far none of Albania's opponents in Group Nine have found breaking down their defence a simple matter.
"In every qualifying game they have played they have had better possession than their opponents," Eriksson pointed out yesterday. "This happened against Germany and us, and the Germans only beat them with a late goal at home. They are very good on the ball and all round are a very good technical side.
"Albania have nothing to lose, absolutely nothing," the England coach added, "so they can just go out and try to play as well as they can. We on the other hand have everything to lose if we don't perform in a good way."
That said it is far more difficult to envisage an England defeat tonight than it was to foresee an English victory in Germany, although no sober person would have predicted the score. In March, England won 3-1 in Tirana without ever reaching the levels of their performance in Munich; tonight they should win again and by a two-goal margin at the very least.
Eriksson will look to David Beckham to reaffirm the qualities of leadership and influence he showed in the Olympiastadion, to Steven Gerrard and Paul Scholes to repeat the tactical discipline which stiffened a previously flabby midfield, to Gary Neville and Ashley Cole to continue pushing up on the flanks and above all to Owen to keep netting goals like a trawler catches mackerel.
Defensively England will need to be better organised than they were both in Tirana and, for the first 20 minutes or so, in Munich. Albania are no mugs when it comes to catching teams on the break.
England will surely not have forgotten the difficulty they experienced in Albania six months ago when clever interchanges of position by Igli Tare, Bleda Kola and Alban Bushi made it hard to keep track of the opposition's movements and several times left Eriksson's defence exposed.
In the meantime the England attack made little impression against tightly organised covering until Owen and Scholes scored in the 73rd and 85th minutes. Even then the introduction of Altin Rraklli caused a last-minute English panic, with Rraklli scoring one goal and Albania having another narrowly disallowed before Andy Cole completed a somewhat nervous victory.
Whether Albania can produce a performance of comparable obduracy against an England side whose confidence is soaring and against such a raucous background of Geordie passion has to be doubted. And Gerrard, remember, missed Tirana with an injury. The young Liverpool midfielder's presence alone may well convince the Albanians they are facing a completely different team.
A win tonight, with the Germans inactive, would take England to the top of Group Nine - level on 16 points but ahead on a superior goal difference of five at least. Then all would rest on the results of England and Germany's home matches against Greece and Finland on October 6th.
It may be tempting to think of tonight's game in terms of how big a win England can achieve in order to jack up their advantage on goals, but for Eriksson three points come first. "If you go into a game, any game, just thinking about scoring a lot of goals then you will not score a lot of goals," he warned.
"First of all you must have discipline, you have to defend well, keep possession and keep a good shape. I'll be happy to win 1-0 tomorrow. Two-nil would be better but it's important to win the game."
Leeds United's Nigel Martyn hurt a knee in training on Monday and has been replaced as a spare goalkeeper by Leicester City's Ian Walker.
