Steve Clarke insisted it was far too early to think about Scotland’s next steps after their damaging defeat to Brazil, with their World Cup hopes hanging by a thread. The team will now wait to learn their World Cup fate this weekend after the 3-0 loss to Brazil in Miami, and Clarke was clearly in pain, as he stormed away from his post‑match interview.
The defeat leaves Scotland sitting third in the group in their first major tournament appearance in nearly 30 years. Vinicius Junior struck twice, maintaining his streak of scoring in every World Cup match so far, while Matheus Cunha added a third to wrap things up.
It’s now a painful waiting game, with the 1-0 win over Haiti giving Scotland a slim chance of reaching the round-of-32 one of the strongest third‑placed teams. That, however, all depends on how other nations perform.
The numbers had given them a decent chance of progressing even with a defeat of two goals or fewer, but losing by three or more has drastically reduced those odds. As it stands, Scotland have a -3 goal difference which leaves them vulnerable to being leapfrogged as other teams play out their remaining group games over the coming days.
Clarke and his squad won’t know their fate until around Sunday, when Group J concludes.
Speaking on the pitch after the match, he said: “We made it difficult for ourselves. That’s it. We gave them the goals. We gave them the game they wanted. Disappointing. We made it difficult for ourselves, that’s it. We gave them the goals, we gave them the game they wanted. Disappointing.”
When asked for his thoughts on the agonising wait, Clarke added: “I don’t even think about that,” before walking away.
As a result, the BBC were forced to cut back to Kelly Cates in their Salford studio. Clarke later returned to deliver a full post‑match interview, and since said that Scotland are ‘for sure’ going home.
Captain Andy Robertson, who was taken off at half‑time with a suspected injury, told the broadcaster: “We started the game well and were keeping the ball pushed up the pitch. They put us in a false sense of security and we thought we had more time on the ball. We then get punished, we’re 1-0 down and you have to try and fight back.
“But we knew we were up against a real quality team. We’re just off the pitch but the initial reaction is one of frustration because in certain moments, we let ourselves down. We couldn’t quite afford to do that. We’ve only got ourselves to blame. Time will tell. We need to take a day or two and see what’s happened. We didn’t want to put ourselves in a position where we watch every game and hope for favours and hope this team score and all that. We’ve put ourselves in a really difficult situation.
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“If you ask me now, I don’t think it’s enough. I don’t think we’ve done enough. But time will tell, maybe I’ll be proved wrong and we’ll get another shot at it. I hope that’s the case. But the next couple of days is going to be horrible and long, but this is the situation we’ve put ourselves in so we have to deal with it.”
Meanwhile, midfielder John McGinn added: “Gutted obviously. To lose more goals at poor times against a team that can punish you with quality… We had a few chances to get a goal ourselves which would have been important at the end but we’ve just got to wait now. You can see the lads are gutted. We fell short on quality tonight but we gave it absolutely everything.
“The lads are empty now. If we’re to go through, we’ll have to see over the next few days. We’ve given ourselves a more difficult chance. It’s unlikely now, I would say, but we’ll see. In moments, Brazil hurt you. They allowed us to have the play and at this level if you make mistakes, you get punished. This is the top level. We probably got fortunate with the goal that got disallowed. We know we have to be better. We just need to wait and see now.
McGinn continued: “It’s a bit raw at the minute but we appreciate the support of the fans. We know how difficult it is to be here and hopefully the journey’s not over. They’ve been absolutely outstanding and if we’re to go again, we’ll go again.”
Elsewhere in Group C, Morocco ran out 4-2 winners against Haiti to secure second place. They finished level with Brazil on seven points, but the Selecao edged them thanks to a superior goal difference.
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