The cross came in low and flat. It confounded Andriy Pyatov and there was England’s returning hero to head into a goal, open like a big door off its hinges, just waiting to be pushed in.
And so to Wayne Rooney, the glory, but to Steven Gerrard the credit. He has a Champions League final as good as named in his honour, an FA Cup final victory, too. And this is Gerrard’s European Championship campaign. He is its architect and its inspiration.
Rooney’s goal was the third he had set up in as many games: one secured a point against France, one beat the hosts, one found the head of Andy Carroll as if guided by Nasa technology. Gerrard has been quite brilliant here this summer. He has been the player we have been waiting for; the player we have only truly seen in the red of Liverpool.
Gerrard knows he has not justified his stellar reputation for England. He appears almost inhibited at times, his pronouncements speaking of his love of playing for his country, his performances suggesting a man overwhelmed by expectation.
Credit manager Roy Hodgson with this current transformation. Given the role of captain and complete faith in his ability to play box-to-box central midfield with the necessary discipline, he has thrived.
This is the role a succession of managers believed Gerrard could not occupy, remember? From Rafael Benitez to Fabio Capello, it was felt Gerrard could not be trusted at the heart of a 4-4-2. Maybe that has changed as he has got older and less able to chase down in all four corners of the field.
These days, Gerrard hones his talent; and it is devastatingly effective. His crosses are Beckham-like, but not Beckham-lite; no pale imitation but a thoroughly new and unique danger. There is no player hitting crosses at dead balls from wide at this tournament like Gerrard; not even Cristiano Ronaldo.
As for the armband that Capello once thought shrunk him – he regarded Gerrard as too timid to lead and only gave him the role when there was no other option, as in South Africa – he wears it now with all the pride of Popeye’s anchor tattoo. It is as if he has ingested spinach and is spoling for a fight.
Nobody bullies Gerrard in an England shirt these days. He strode across the pitch at the Donbass Arena as imposingly as he did that night in Istanbul, or at the Millennium Stadium in the FA Cup final.
And how England needed him on Tuesday night. For, whatever the scoreline and the group table suggests, that was far from a comfortable night for Hodgson and his men. Not for the first time in Donetsk in this campaign, England spent much of the first half as second best.
Yet, while the performance against France seemed to be a realistic acceptance of underdog status, Tuesday’s was an altogether more worrying turn of events.
Roy Hodgson acknowledged that Ukraine were a fast, counter-attacking side capable of keeping possession and technically astute, but this was not about inviting England in, but taking the initiative.
With a draw of no use to the home side, they attacked England with comparative abandon, front foot from the start, punching holes through the midfield with pace and invention and stretching England’s back line.
A less well organised team would not have withstood it and it is testament to Hodgson’s skills as a coach that they did.
Despite the events of last week in Kiev, the strength of this team was always going to be at the back and on Tuesday night they required every last bead of effort and resourcefulness. Joleon Lescott was as sound as he has been all season, John Terry was at his best as a solid wall of defiance, repelling shots with full body blocks that became his trademark at Chelsea under Jose Mourinho.
And then there was Ashley Cole who was, well, Ashley Cole, because he always has been, from the moment he got into the team. Ashley Cole as byword for dependability, Ashley Cole expressed in numerical form as 7/10 minimum. Ashley Cole who has seen off 10 challenges to his authority since coming into the team against Albania on March 28, 2001.
This was a milestone match for him, the 21st tournament appearance of his international career – a record for an England player, beating the 20 played by Peter Shilton and David Beckham. He won’t have had too many that were harder.
Ukraine knew him too well, though. Often, Andriy Yarmolenko starts on the right for them, attacking any left-back considered vulnerable by coach Oleg Blokhin. He did not waste time trying it on with Cole.
Instead, Yarmolenko popped up all over the field, often in a central role and wreaked his havoc that way.
In fact, one mesmerising run in a tight space in the penalty area sparked memories of Ricky Villa’s FA Cup final replay goal for Tottenham Hotspur against Manchester City in 1981.
He was outstanding, Yarmolenko, just 22 and one of another emerging batch from Dynamo Kiev, but he was far from alone. Even with Andriy Shevchenko – who was on the wrong side of a 50-50 injury coin toss – out of the starting line-up and with Andriy Voronin also relegated to the bench, they were a constant threat.
Striker Marko Devic was a handful, Artem Milevskiy’s movement always a challenge. It was England who were forced to play on the counter, England who spent much of the first half frantically throwing blankets on fires.
That may be the difference between needing to win and being able to progress with only a draw, but it didn’t feel that way at the time.
It was not so much that England did not want to risk, but that they simply could not risk. Ukraine would not let them.
For a team with the hopes of a nation weighing on them, they were remarkably impressive.
Blokhin was right. His team played as if they had absolutely nothing to lose. – Daily Mail