Scotland fear World Cup exit after Brazil beat them 3-0
Scotland were left waiting on third-place permutations after Vinícius Júnior scored twice in Brazil’s 3-0 win, with John McGinn and Steve Clarke fearing the campaign is over.
Vinícius Júnior struck twice for Brazil, scoring in the 7th minute and again in first-half stoppage time, before Matheus Cunha added the third on 60 minutes at Miami Stadium. Scotland’s World Cup return after 28 years was pushed to the brink in Miami Gardens, where Brazil beat Steve Clarke’s side 3-0. John McGinn said the wait for confirmation was “unlikely” to end in Scotland’s favour, while Clarke said he suspects they are “going home”.
The result sent Brazil through to the World Cup Round of 32 as Group C winners and left Scotland with only the narrowest of routes into the knockout stage.
That route now runs through the expanded 48-team format at the 2026 World Cup, which runs from 11 June to 19 July across Canada, Mexico and the United States. The new structure has 12 groups, a Round of 32 and eight places for the best third-placed teams, so Scotland must wait for the wider permutations to settle before knowing whether they have advanced.
The top two teams in each group go through automatically, and Scotland can no longer reach that threshold after losing to Morocco and Brazil. Their only goal of the tournament so far came from McGinn in the opening win over Haiti.
Brazil controlled the decisive game and never looked in danger after Vinícius Júnior’s early opener. Scotland now need the results from the remaining groups to place them among the eight best third-placed sides, a calculation that could keep the squad and the Tartan Army waiting until the early hours of Sunday.
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