Scotland will now play the waiting game. The trouble is, as they hang around to discover whether a place in the last 32 can be secured as among the leading eight third-placed teams, it is legitimate to question the point of it all. Scotland’s on-field contribution to this tournament has been pitiful.
Defeat by Brazil can and should happen. The ragged nature of Scotland’s output in Miami, the utterly punchless nature of their play – again – until desperation set in means they should enter the knockout phase with red faces should that come to pass. Steve Clarke’s men have been outscored by Haiti in Group C plus New Zealand, Iran and Cape Verde elsewhere.
