It was the kind of comeback that will live long in the memory for those England fans who made the trip to Berlin. Coming from 2-0 down against world champions Germany, Roy Hodgson’s men showed sensational spirit to record a stunning 3-2 victory which sent the away end into raptures.

Fantastic goals by Harry Kane and substitute Jamie Vardy had looked likely to earn a surprise draw, but Eric Dier completed the job in injury time with a towering header from Jordan Henderson’s corner. After greeting their jubilant fans at the end, England’s victorious players left the arena to the tune of Monty Python’s ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’.

But there were certainly two stories to tell of this game, in spite of the ultimate glory of defeating the old enemy on their home soil. How England turned a positive first-half performance into a 2-0 deficit in the first place deserves greater scrutiny than the result will encourage.

In truth, this was a game in which England looked the better side for long spells but too often lacked the composure in both boxes to make it count for anything. For all Dier’s positives tonight, he will wonder how he left Toni Kroos in so much space to fire home Germany’s first. Nathaniel Clyne’s performance will also come under the spotlight, particularly after Mario Gomez peeled off into his channel and headed home unmarked to double the home side’s lead.

Even at 2-2, after Kane and Vardy had each delivered magnificent finishes, Dele Alli should have buried a clear shot at goal from Vardy’s centre instead of firing high over the bar. Following on from first-half failures by Danny Welbeck, Alli and Adam Lallana, it looked like England would be the ultimate masters of their own downfall.

They got there in the end thanks to Dier and the England fans lapped up the experience, staying behind to sing and chant long after the final whistle. It felt a lot like 2001 in Munich all over again.

Of course, that was a far more clinical England display, and a 5-1 victory in a qualifier certainly trumps a 3-2 friendly win, but even back then the Three Lions managed to squander a very promising position in the international game.

And Roy Hodgson will rightly weigh up both the positives and the negatives of this performance. He will rue the performances of Lallana, Welbeck and Clyne just as much as celebrating those of Kane and Dier. His suspect back four will earn much of his attention heading into Tuesday’s clash with Netherlands, and, more importantly, in the months before they travel to France for the Euro 2016 finals.

"It's a friendly match and one must always be careful not to place too much importance on it," Hodgson said after the game. "But had Germany been the ones to get that third goal I wouldn't have been too disappointed in the performance. We'll be analysing the game and there's an awful lot that we can do better I think."

One gets the feeling from this performance that England have it in them to cause a stir this summer, but also to underwhelm. On another day, they might not have been allowed to take advantage of Germany’s second-half changes to get back into the game.