So England left with flags flying and the World Cup savoured a night which will add to its lustre and enhance its mythology.
England and Argentina. All the great England games come dressed in the context of battles past, but this one didn't need the ghosts of Antonio Rattin or Diego Mara dona. This had it all.
Flesh, blood and bandage.
England and Argentina in St Etienne. Four goals, two penalties, one sending off, one disallowed goal, extra time, penalties. It was far-fetched and it was riveting: a defining night of the World Cup.
In the end, it came down to penalties and heroics, spot kicks and cruel death. Seven perfect penalties and two saves later, David Batty stood up, fair-haired, with a world on his shoulders. He shot meekly. Carlos Roa saved gratefully. England were gone.
But that was the end. The evening had so much more. After God Save The Queen, they kicked off with 15 minutes of madness and took it from there.
The Danish referee, Kim Nielsen, began the evening with an inflight demonstration which illustrated to passengers that justice is blind but it knows how to use the scales. Before the fifth minute, the Argentinians had been granted a penalty, crashed in by Batistuta. Before the 10th minute, the English had been given one, too. Shearer, with iced veins, exchanged it for a goal.
The good stuff had yet to come, however. The Argentinians were fumbling in their pockets for the rhythm of the game when David Beckham located Michael Owen loitering nearby. English football's latest royal scampered off with Chamot chuntering after him.
Chamot flagged, Owen whistled around Ayala as if the defender were a hole in the road, impudently he ignored Scholes with better claims outside him and, well, the highlights reel will never grow dusty.
The game swept on, tossing us about like thousands of corks on a high sea. Paul Scholes missed a chance of such glaring simplicity that his grandchildren will hear about how he could have been a contender for glory. The Argentinians looked bewildered for long stretches and dazzling for brief flashes. In the end, one such moment closed the half, a wonderfully plotted free kick making fools of the English defence before Zanetti equalised.
Half-time and it was already the game of the tournament.
The second half began with a reprise of the madness which opened the first. Beckham, the pop star's consort with pop-star petulance, had a bad-tempered exchange with Simeone and was ordered off the premises. "It cost us dearly", said Glenn Hoddle afterwards.
The Argentinians owned the ball for much of the second period, but possession was only nine-tenths of the game. The English tackled like mad dogs. The Argentinians grew frustrated if no less inventive. We lurched towards the high drama of the World Cup's Golden Goal gimmick. Half an hour of extra time with a sudden death twist. First goal the winner. Russian roulette as a team sport.
England got through it to the dry land of the penalty shoot-out, where they no longer struggled for want of personnel. What exquisite drama that was, moments when football stops being a team sport and becomes a business of slow pulses and cool heads.
It was a cruel way for an evening of huge drama to finish, but anything less stark than winners and losers would have been a cop-out. "We thought we'd done it", said Glenn Hoddle, emotional and pale. "Lots of things went against us."
Argentina go on to play Holland. England go home, lions rampant.