There’s two ways to look at their Pro League results from the Summer when they lost seven on the bounce before breaking that rut with a 4-3 win over Belgium to round out their league fixtures for the season. They finished second from bottom, 18 points, 18 adrift of Netherlands, eventual champions.

The Pro League offers the team a great avenue to play high quality opponents on a yearly basis but the jeopardy isn’t there. Sure, you can be relegated but you have to be really, really bad to be relegated (Ireland, who were relegated this year, had four points). So it gives the team management a degree of freedom in terms of blooding youngsters, trialling tactical systems and experimenting new set plays.

But you also want to win matches, matches against top teams. Something India haven’t done an awful lot of in the recent past. It’s kind of reflected in their ranking (No. 7). If they don’t move up a few rungs, they may get a bad draw at next year’s World Cup if they qualify for it.