The narrative before this first post-World Cup international was clear: if England lose, the pressure on Thomas Tuchel could become unbearable.

The big name on the big bucks, brought in to win the big games, could not afford to lose to Spain after the tactical disaster of the World Cup semi-final defeat to Argentina. The court of public opinion, and the bile of the English media, would combine to make life very difficult for the England boss.

Well, here we are, in the aftermath of a 3-2 loss to the newly-crowned world champions, where England were outclassed on numerous occasions, where the scoreline should have been much one-sided, where for long periods Spain looked far superior to the Three Lions, where after half an hour the visitors should have been four-nil up. That's surely it, then? Auf Wiedersehen, Thomas?

Nope. Strangely, despite all of that, Tuchel's critics have been forced to bite their tongues and bide their time. Why? Because England were true to their DNA, they gave it a real good go; there were a lot of positive signs, and ultimately everyone saw again just how incredibly good Spain are.

It's hard to criticise Tuchel or his players when they were narrowly beaten by a team who have repeatedly proven they are the best by a mile at what they do.

The game was decided by two collector's items at either end of the pitch - one a Marc Guehi calamity on the edge of his own box that gifted Spain the lead in the second minute. The other was a Harry Kane missed penalty because of a slippery pitch. And if England's captain had scored from 12 yards, giving his side a two-goal cushion, who knows what might have been.

The match statistics make for comforting reading for Tuchel too. Up against the tika-taka maestros, England had a very respectable 48 per cent possession, made more successful passes in the final third than Spain, had two fewer shots, had over double the amount of touches in the opponent's box and five times as many crosses.

Those stats may not pass the sniff test. They might seem at odds with what most spectators saw with their eyes, but the numbers that perhaps help us understand better show that Spain created twice as many big chances.

How do we digest all of that? In basic terms, Spain may have had the ball less than England in dangerous areas, but when they did, Luis de la Fuente's team had more quality and were more clinical. And the team that has not lost a match in two-and-a-half years didn't make costly individual errors with the ball, because that's not in their DNA.

If it is possible, the defeat has improved the national mood. Notably, there were no boos within the 88,000 Wembley crowd at full time, because for half an hour either side of half-time, England dominated the world champions and they played in a very "English" way.

All verve, pace and passion, full of attacking intent. They scored two goals in that period against a side that has only conceded goals to two teams in the last 12 months, and the home side could have scored more in that golden 30 minutes. If only they could sustain that for a full 90 minutes, eh?

Captain Harry Kane told me after the match that this is the mission, having not managed to put in a complete 90-minute performance at the World Cup, and he felt the same was true at Wembley on Saturday night.

What really matters now is how England follow up on this Spain defeat. They have three games in eight days. Three games they ought to win, with Czech Republic home and away sandwiching Croatia away. If they do win all three, it will have been a positive international break, one that very much keeps alive their hopes of making it to the Nations League quarter-finals in the spring. Remember, the top two qualify from each group in League A, and so practically it does not matter if England finish below Spain, so long as they finish above the other two nations.

But once again it is the next game that feels critical for Tuchel. You can imagine the England boss saying to his squad in the post-match debrief: "After the Spanish Inquisition, my friends, comes the test from the Czechs, mates".