Six points from six for both sides, eight goals scored between them, and a place at the top of Group I to be settled. Norway against France at the Gillette Stadium on Friday evening is the match the group has been building towards, and the stakes could hardly be simpler: whoever wins goes through as group winners, probably with a kinder knockout draw to follow.
France have been the tidier of the two, conceding just once in their opening two games while scoring six. Norway have been rather more free-spirited, putting seven past Senegal and Iraq but giving up three in the process. Both approaches have delivered the same points return, which makes this the only number that matters now.
The head-to-head record offers nothing by way of historical guidance. These two nations have never met in competitive football at this level, so there are no old scores to settle and no psychological edges to lean on. Whatever happens inside the Gillette Stadium will be written without precedent.
Both squads report no fresh absences ahead of kick-off, which at least gives each manager the headache of selection from strength rather than circumstance. Norway will be eager to test a French defence that has looked composed but has not yet faced opponents of comparable attacking ambition. France, for their part, have the experience of deep tournament runs that Norway's golden generation is still accumulating.
The tactical question is whether Norway can impose the direct, high-tempo game that has overwhelmed Senegal and Iraq on a France side built to absorb pressure and punish the space it creates. France will not be as open as either of those opponents. They will be patient. They will wait.
A draw, of course, sends both teams through, and that possibility looms over the game's rhythm. There may be a point in the second half where caution suits both benches equally, and pragmatism takes hold. Whether either side is willing to accept second place by playing for the point is the subtler tension running beneath the obvious one.
The data leans towards a cautious read: Norway are given a 10 per cent chance of victory, while France and the draw are rated almost identically at 45 per cent each. The suggestion, in short, is that a shared result is at least as likely as a French win, with Norway's chances the narrowest of the three outcomes. Friday evening in Boston will determine whether the numbers have read the room correctly.