World Cup: Brazil end Group stage on high with victory over Scotland

The dream of qualifying for the knockout stage of the FIFA World Cup in its maiden appearance for Scotland is now very much under threat following their loss to Brazil by a scoreline of 3-0 in their last Group C game in Miami.

Going into the match, Steve Clarke’s team knew that securing a win would go a long way in making sure that they qualify as one of the best third placed teams at the tournament. But they failed to contain some costly mistakes in their defense which resulted in the five-time world champions comfortably winning the match and finishing first in the group.

Brazil opened the scoring through their youngster Vinicius Junior who scored after taking advantage of a mistake made by Scotland defender Scott McKenna. The Brazilian then set up Rayan to score the first goal of the match.

The South Americans believed they had added to their advantage when Vinicius Jr scored after taking advantage of a defensive mistake once more but the goal was disallowed because of a foul on Jack Hendry.

Brazil eventually scored their second goal deep into first-half injury time as Vinicius Jr headed the ball into the far corner of the net after Scotland failed to clear their lines.

Although displaying moments of attacking threat, Scotland had no answers for the Brazilian pace and class. All their efforts towards staging a fightback ended in the second half when Matheus Cunha netted Brazil’s third goal after Brazil midfielder Bruno Guimaraes won the ball in midfield.

Scotland made a few attempts at goal through Scott McTominay’s header and some penalty appeals, but they could not penetrate the Brazil defense led by their goalkeeper Alisson.

The loss sees Scotland with three points and a goal difference which might play a vital role in their qualification to the next round, where they have to wait until other groups’ results are known if they have qualified as one of the eight best third-placed teams.

This result confirmed Brazil as Group C leaders and one of the favorites to win the tournament after another brilliant individual effort from Vinicius Jr.

Scotland will now have to go through an agonizing wait to find out if their World Cup dream is still alive or not.