Nobody really expected this. It sounds trite but it was clear when the players were lining up that the prospect of England vs. Sweden in a World Cup quarterfinal was out of the realm of possibility for fans of both sides as the arena in Samara was partially empty and, judging by the colors of the crowd, there were more locals than die-hards. It wasn't a case of location, as Samara is significantly easier to get to than Kaliningrad which was full of red and white shirts for the England group stage finale with Belgium.

This paucity of support trickled onto the pitch and the opening sections of the game took place under a cloud of disbelief. Following on from the high quality of the high stakes France vs. Uruguay and Belgium vs. Brazil games a day earlier, this bobbed along at a fairly slow pace. Jordan Henderson, who has played most of the tournament as a walking bad mood, started the game off in an unreasonably chippy way drawing ire from the referee. This aside, the opening sections of the game had very little that could be described as memorable.

It may sound absurd but this is actually a good thing. It shows that England – finally, after years upon years of group stage elimination and first round failure – have actually learned something. It took the schadenfreude of openly celebrating Iceland's win over Austria at Euro 2016 (and the 2-1 loss that came next, of course) for it to happen but England seemed to go into this clash wary of Sweden rather than treating them as a stepping stone to a big team showdown.

They are minnows who have failed to make a dent in either the World Cup or the Euros for over 20 years and, without Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who is off making a fortune in Los Angeles, a team without any bankable stars. Victor Lindelof is with Manchester United but the rest are floating around Europe, America and the Middle East. They are also a team who rightfully earned their spot in a World Cup quarterfinal after convincingly beating South Korea, Mexico, Switzerland and only conceding in a loss to then-defending champions Germany, who won with the final kick of the game.

And England respected this. Perhaps it's because they too have failed to make a dent internationally for a long time and have just recently lost their bigger stars. They know what it's like and they're hungry to set new standards, but to do that, they needed a solid foundation. Set up in a classic 4-4-2 formation, England's game plan was to keep the ball as far away from goalkeeper Jordan Pickford as possible and use Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling as a battering ram against the Swedes' more defensively minded 5-3-2.

Halfway through the first half, this began to pay dividends. Slow and steady gave the players chances to find what worked and what didn't and Sterling's pace scared the left back pair of Andreas Granqvist and Ludwig Augustinsson and his first real sprint left plenty of space for Kane, who just about dragged it wide with his first shot on goal.

As if sensing not quite blood in the water but a juicy chunk of flesh ready to be bled, the England midfielders followed their probing strikers and piled on the pressure until, on the stroke of half an hour, Harry Maguire, a big defender by trade, got in the box for a corner and belted it down with a strong header. In the replay, Dele Alli appeared to flinch just in time to avoid causing a deflection and goalkeeper Robin Olsen's slow reaction suggested he expected that too.

Again, England showed they had learned. 1-0 up in the quarterfinals and they kept their heads. Mild mannered manager Gareth Southgate's softy, softly approach is clearly paying off. Twice more they tried the same approach and twice more they put pressure on Sweden; Sterling ran down the left and found Alli, whose cheeky flick got saved, and five minutes later, Sterling ran down the right, found himself one-on-one with Olsen and got flagged for offside – he immediately tried the same thing one minute later and stayed on. A bit more team awareness and a little less trying for a World Cup moment and England would have been 2-0 up, as he took what felt like forever to find a shot instead of passing back to several open teammates.

In the second half, Sweden's intentionally ponderous play was replaced with more pressing but England, emboldened, played likewise and an hour after their first – not including half time – England got their second from another header. This time Alli, this time thankfully not from a corner but from a Jesse Lingard cross. England was in complete control and Baddiel & Skinner and The Lightning Seed blasted from the crowd like it was their theme tune.

It wasn't all plain sailing. Depending on the point of view, despite or because victory was all but sealed, England seemed to have a gaping hole in the center of their defense that Sweden found two or three times in the closing half hour. They would have scored at least one in the 63rd – Viktor Claesson sent one straight down the middle after a crafty lay-off from Marcus Berg – were it not for Everton's Pickford, who has become this tournament's Kaylor Navas; unseeded at first, a superstar at the end.

Now it's on to the semifinals for the Three Lions. When the final whistle blew, it took several seconds for them to celebrate. Nobody, most of all themselves, expected this and nobody, especially themselves, have any expectations going forward either; this is uncharted waters. Nobody has to expect anything anymore, nobody can. They just have to play.

It's coming home.