{"id":649370,"date":"2026-06-20T18:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T18:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/649370\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T18:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T18:30:09","slug":"scotland-rue-50-50-penalty-calls-in-defeat-morocco-got-away-with-one-there-scotland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/649370\/","title":{"rendered":"Scotland rue \u201850\/50\u2019 penalty calls in defeat: \u2018Morocco got away with one there\u2019 | Scotland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steve Clarke believes Scotland were unfortunate not to be awarded at least one penalty during their 1-0 defeat by Morocco<\/a>. In separate incidents, John McGinn and Scott McTominay appealed vociferously for spot-kicks under challenges from Morocco players. McGinn later insisted the defender Neil El Aynaoui \u201ctook me out\u201d.<\/p>\n

While Clarke steered well clear of castigating the match officials, he clearly felt the decisions were borderline and suggested Morocco\u2019s Issa Diop could have been sent off early in the game. The deciding goal arrived after just 70 seconds, with Scotland<\/a> spirited in the second half.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone when I did my television interviews was talking about the Scott McTominay one,\u201d Clarke said. \u201cThat is the one I didn\u2019t watch back. I thought the John McGinn one was 50\/50. Some would give it and I think if the referee gives it, the VAR doesn\u2019t overturn it. So I can only speak on that one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clarke volunteered opinion on Diop, who was booked for a foul on the Scotland striker Ch\u00e9 Adams. \u201cI was a little bit 50\/50 as well on the Ch\u00e9 Adams [challenge], last man,\u201d Clarke added. \u201cHe had a chance to go through one-on-one with the goalkeeper and is brought down. The referee chooses yellow. There is nothing we can do about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assessing his own incident, McGinn said: \u201cSometimes that goes for you. If we got a couple of those penalty decisions for us, I don\u2019t think VAR intervenes. Out the corner of my eye, I could see [the Morocco defender] charging in. I got first contact to the ball and he took me out. It\u2019s a penalty kick for me. Sometimes you get them, sometimes you don\u2019t. If it was given on the field, no chance it\u2019s overturned.<\/p>\n

\u201cMorocco have got away with one there. But we need to be better and create chances from open play, not rely on referee\u2019s decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scotland\u2019s attention will shortly turn to Wednesday and a game with Brazil in Miami that will determine whether they advance from the group stage for the first time ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am proud of the players but obviously we are all devastated,\u201d said Clarke. \u201cThe players will suffer a bit over the next 48 hours. They don\u2019t like losing against anybody.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight throughout the team, Morocco had a bit of class. But we gave it a good go. Morocco know they have been in a game tonight. We have shown we can compete at this level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clarke, who singled out Lewis Ferguson for praise for a second game in succession, allayed fears over the second-half problem that led to Kieran Tierney\u2019s departure. Scotland\u2019s manager said Tierney had only suffered cramp before being replaced by Ben Gannon-Doak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve Clarke believes Scotland were unfortunate not to be awarded at least one penalty during their 1-0 defeat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-649370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}