In his own understated way, Roy Hodgson perfectly summed up the mood towards England’s friendly with France when admitting that there would be “issues at stake that are greater than the game of football” at Wembley on Tuesday evening.

It goes without saying that following the atrocities in Paris on Friday night, a meaningless football match pales into insignificance.

Yet although the game itself may not matter in the slightest, the fact that it is taking place at all should.

Sport and all of its symbols and traditions in the form of kits and flags and anthems are invariably used to differentiate one nation from another in a powerful display of us against them.

That the iconic arch towering over the home of English football has been illuminated in the colours of the tricolore since the weekend - above the words ‘liberté, égalité, fraternité’ - stands for something.

The entire stadium uniting to sing Le Marseillaise, meanwhile, should provide a moment that will stand out in the memory when the tragic events of 13 November can be properly reflected on – even if the game that it precedes will not.

For despite the abiding anger and grief for those directly affected and the wider community that they were targeted to represent, there can be no escaping that life must go on.

The aftermath of such attacks inevitably leaves behind a sense of bewilderment and isolation, yet it is in returning to the shared activities and experiences that have come to shape the societies that the perpetrators have tried to fracture that solace can be sought.

People will return to meet friends in bars and restaurants, they will come to dance at music concerts once more, and they will continue to congregate in sporting stadiums where the community of which they are a part transforms from an abstract notion into a very real and visible entity.

After so much debate about the risks and ramifications of proceeding with the fixture, quite how the players on both teams approach it once underway remains to be seen.

Before the full horror of events on Friday had become clear, France earned their fifth win in a row thanks to a 2-0 victory over Germany.

It was Olivier Giroud who opened the scoring over the world champions and, having bagged eight in his last nine for club and country, the Arsenal striker is 5/2 to find the net at any time back in London and 10/1 to score first in a France win. 

Remarkably, Les Bleus have only failed to score once in their last 15 matches.

Thirteen different players have contributed 26 goals during that time, meaning that even without Karim Benzema and Mathieu Valbuena - absent due to an ongoing court case - they possess no shortage of scorers.

England, on the other hand, have the opposite problem – with injury or unavailability ruling out the scorers of 20 of their 37 goals during the same period of time.

Wayne Rooney has contributed nine of the remainderand, after being rested against Spain on Friday, England’s record scorer is 5/1 to return to the team by netting at any time in a home win.

England have not beaten France for nearly two decades - having lost four and drawn two of the six meetings since their last victory in 1997 - yet few watching the game either inside the stadium or on television will care whether or not that record is ended on Tuesday.

The result may be irrelevant, but the fact that this most amicable of friendlies is going ahead certainly is not. 

England v France betting