Orel Grinfeeld is not one of world football's high-profile referees but he is clearly a pretty decent one. After all, he was one of the few who immediately noticed had, er, anticipated penalty box contact from Roberts Savalnieks rather than actually felt it.

If you are not inclined to give Rashford the benefit of the doubt, the referee was one of the few inside Wembley who spotted a dive. But dive or not, it came at the end of an attempt to get beyond the Latvian defence. It came from a direct run. And it came from Thomas Tuchel's words of criticism in the wake of the win over Albania three days earlier.

England's new manager is clearly not worried about offending players' sensibilities and was fairly dismissive of Rashford's and Phil Foden's Tuchel was unapologetic on the eve of but while he did drop Foden to the bench, he persevered with Rashford as a starter.

And while this was far from a stellar performance from the player on loan at , Tuchel did get some sort of response from a character who, it has been fair to say for a long while, divides opinion.

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This performance in isolation will, for example, do exactly that. There will be those out there who think Rashford was mainly poor, that his final ball was not up to elite scratch. And there will be those who like the way he sat the odd defender down and tried to make things happen.

The truth is that it was a very acceptable but relatively unremarkable performance in a distinctly unremarkable game of football. But Tuchel clearly likes Rashford, he is clearly a fan, possibly based on the employee's entire body of work than on recent history.

It is almost four months since Rashford last scored a goal and there must be a very good reason why Ruben Amorim decided he could not work with him at Old Trafford. He still has a long way to go before people are convinced he can get back to his very best. But according to the statistics from this non-contest, Rashford was the player who created the most chances in the match.

He did not directly create the opportunity taken by in the second half - doubling the lead earned by ' superb first half free-kick - but he was involved. And compared to the man on England's opposite attacking flank, , he was far more positive and impactful.

If you had to rate Rashford's combined contributions across the first two games of Tuchel's tenure, you would probably settle for a mark of six, possibly seven, out of ten. But if he needed it, this show of faith from Tuchel should give the 27-year-old's confidence a lift.

He can now go back to Aston Villa and look forward to an exciting end to the club season, pretty secure in the knowledge that he will be part of Tuchel's plans between now and the World Cup finals next summer.

Late in this game, Rashford led a rapid counter-attack that could have led to yet another Kane goal. It did not but it was another reminder of why Tuchel is a Rashford fan. He is quick and can be direct, qualities that the German values highly, qualities that still help make him a high-class footballer.

And my guess is that as long as he plays regularly next season - for whoever - Rashford will be going to those finals with Tuchel's England.

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