It’s tempting to think of a tournament’s bronze medal game, whatever it might be called, as a kind of footballing purgatory. I’m not even sure it’s that good.

These third-place play-offs are a nonsense at the best of times and Gareth Southgate’s England are becoming familiar with them. It means we’re reaching semi-finals, mind, and at the end of the FIFA World Cup it’s a decent enough lap of honour.

The UEFA Nations League finals, though, are a different plate of barbecued sardines. England’s wins against Spain and Croatia earned their place, celebrated and embraced in full.

But when a finals tournament begins with two semi-finals the play-off is between two teams that have played one, lost one. Throw in the fact that even UEFA’s primary international tournament doesn’t have a play-off, and Switzerland 0-0 England looks like a monumental waste of effort.

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The lot of the optimist at times like these is to take the good stuff and find a way for it to matter. England won the match, on penalties, and finished third - positive number one.

The method of victory was, for once, as important as victory itself. England’s history in penalty shoot-outs is woeful. Last summer they exorcised a great many demons by beating Colombia from twelve yards.

Following it up by winning on spot kicks in Guimarães mightn’t tell us anything about England’s next shoot-out but it was another major step in the right direction.

That only Eric Dier took penalties in both matches was a bonus. Harry Maguire, Ross Barkley, Jadon Sancho, Raheem Sterling and Dier took five of England’s six successful kicks.

The other, the fifth, was taken by Jordan Pickford. England’s goalkeeper had been beaten four times when he removed his gloves and placed the ball on the spot for a kick of his own.

There, waiting, mimicking Cristiano Ronaldo’s trademark set piece pose, Pickford looked every bit the confident striker. His unstoppable shot across Yann Sommer and into the corner confirmed it.

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For all the game’s lack of intensity and import Pickford’s penalty was a moment to savour. Three penalties later he turned away Josip Drmić’s effort and won England the game.

It should never have got that far. Switzerland competed early on but quickly fell away, leaving England to build on an improved defensive performance and outplay their opponents for the better part of 120 minutes.

It was rank profligacy that stunted England. They hit the woodwork four times and wasted a host of other chances to take the lead. Southgate will be concerned that his side scored only once in Portugal.

They found the net twice more, of course. Just as they had against the Netherlands in the semi-final, England scored what looked to be a late winning goal only to be caught out upon VAR review.

Callum Wilson scooped in a close range finish but had pulled his marker and his goal was scrubbed from the records.

Although spotting such infringements is much more in keeping with the spirit of VAR than the fag-paper offside that ruled out Jesse Lingard’s semi-final goal, one has to ask whether we’ve created an environment in which defenders…well, you know where that’s going.

That goal would have won the game. England kept an unimpressive Swiss team at arm’s length and might have won comfortably had they been better in front of goal, or gone beyond second gear.

At this time of year we often criticise footballers who appear to be mentally on the beach when they’re physically on the pitch. It’s much rarer to feel sympathetic, that they should be on holiday but they’re not.

Really, that’s what this match was. No amount of polite acknowledgements of bronze will convince otherwise.

At least England won.