{"id":704246,"date":"2026-06-14T21:31:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T21:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/704246\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T21:31:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T21:31:11","slug":"world-cup-2026-ugly-win-has-scotland-sitting-pretty-but-what-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/704246\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: Ugly win has Scotland sitting pretty but what next?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The failure to add more goals against the second lowest-ranked side in the competition is likely to gnaw away at those old enough to remember the World Cups of 1974, 1978 and 1982 when Scotland exited on goal difference.<\/p>\n

The flip side is the Scots are just one good performance away from making history by progressing to the knockout stages for the first time.<\/p>\n

With 32 of the 48 nations going through, a point against either Morocco or Brazil – who drew 1-1<\/a> on Saturday night – will almost certainly guarantee progress. Three points could well be enough if the goals against tally is low.<\/p>\n

Might that mean we see a more cautious approach in the next two games?<\/p>\n

Clarke went with two strikers against Haiti and former Scotland skipper Scott Brown expects one to drop out for the remaining Group C matches.<\/p>\n

“I think [midfielder] Ryan Christie starts in both of them,” he said. “I think we end up going back to one up front and we’d be a little bit more compact in the middle of the park.<\/p>\n

“Ryan was fantastic when he came on. He’ll keep the ball, gives you that extra bit of legs and he fights for you as well.<\/p>\n

“Are we going to have as much possession, as many opportunities against Morocco and Brazil?”<\/p>\n

Neil McCann reckons a lone striker is the answer and suggests Lyndon Dykes is best suited to the role.<\/p>\n

“He gets knock-downs, he holds it up for Scott McTominay and John McGinn to get beyond,” McCann said.<\/p>\n

Another former Scotland winger, Pat Nevin, also expects a change of system, but reckons Clarke will opt for an extra central defender.<\/p>\n

“A 4-4-2 doesn’t suit us, the midfield is left completely wide open,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I think we need a back three. Morocco are so fluid and fast in attack. A back four against what they’ve got is difficult.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The failure to add more goals against the second lowest-ranked side in the competition is likely to gnaw…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-704246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}