The downside came in the form of the near-collapse at the start of the second half when Sweden scored twice in quick succession and it was alarming to see the ease with which they got through from two set pieces.
Related: Newspoll closes as News Corp Australia replaces 150 staff with 'robopoll' But the publisher of Mumbrella, Tim Burrowes, whose media and marketing website tracks industry changes, says the succession of bad news for News Corp is more a sign of the end of the financial year than of the end of newspapers.
And yet, despite changing British mores over the decades and a succession of editors, including Rebekah Wade (later Brooks) and David Yelland who were both widely reported before their appointments to consider Page 3 outdated, its position in the paper has until now remained unassailable.
With Shane Watson in bullying form, even the lofty vantage point of the pavilion may not have been safe from a succession of smattered shots.
Aged 13, she returned to the US and lived for a short while with her father before being placed in a succession of foster homes and, finally, a baptist children's home.
Despite stiff competition from a succession of crises during his 17-year tenure as president, Blatter admitted that the charges of "rampant, systemic and deep-rooted corruption" presaged by dawn raids in Zurich and revealed by US authorities on Wednesday were "shocking and unprecedented" in their scale.
Abdullah's succession as Saudi Arabia's sixth monarch resulted from his father King Abdulaziz ibn Saud's strategy of marrying the daughters and widows of defeated enemies.
There has been no shortage of surprises, from continually having my first impressions overturned, to finding myself in a succession of unexpected situations, from a tribal wedding on the islands of San Blas to a Chavista meeting in Caracas.
According to Branson, who part-owns Virgin airlines and has invested an estimated £300m in a succession of green fuel, solar and other clean-tech energy developments, the dramatic rise of renewables over the last few years has hurt oil producing countries as much as fracking.
The Andes, as the world's longest continuous mountain range, came to hold the promise of an endless succession of extreme and sublime landscapes.
Three goals in the final 15 minutes of the first half from Bosko Jankovic, Rômulo and Luca Toni put the visitors firmly in control but Livorno made a fight of it as Paulo Betanin and Leandro Greco scored two in rapid succession with less than 20 minutes to go.
