Scotland 0 Brazil 3
The Selecao secure top spot Group C. Brazil finished off their group stage in style putting three past Scotland in a pretty straight-forward game for the 5-time World Cup Champions, they got their first goal gifted to them in the 7th minute as Scott McKenna was caught on the ball in his own box by Rayan with the ball falling to Vinicius Junior who calmly rounded Angus Gunn to put Brazil 1-0 up. Soon after they doubled their lead as Jack Hendry was the one caught on the ball this time by Vinicius Junior who finished low past Gunn only for the goal to be disallowed for an apparent ‘foul’ by Vinicius Junior on Hendry, not a foul for me but a reprieve for Scotland at the time. Just when it looked like Brazil would be going into half-time only one goal up they did actually double their lead this time as Bruno Guimaraes floated a beautiful ball to the back-post over Gunn for Vinicius Junior who headed Brazil 2-0 up three minutes into added time, the second half continued the Brazil onslaught where they eventually put the game to bed as Bruno Guimaraes found some space in the box and unselfishly laid the ball to Matheus Cunha who scored his third of the tournament to put Brazil 3-0 up in the 60th minute. We did get some Neymar minutes which was brilliant to see as Scotland will now need a miracle to qualify for the Round of 32.
Brazil are getting better game by game in this tournament. After the first game against Morocco I thought Brazil had no chance in this World Cup but they’ve been brilliant over these last two matches, you do have to take the quality of opposition into it as Haiti and Scotland were awful in both games but there was a lot riding on this game for Scotland and Brazil gave them very few chances in the 90 minutes. Ancelotti got the game plan spot on letting Scotland play out from the back and basically give Brazil the ball which led to the first goal and the disallowed goal which was ridiculous in my opinion, the quality of Brazil just shone through all over the pitch tonight particularly in midfield where Guimaraes and Casemiro were brilliant along with Paqueta. Another common denominator over these past two games is the addition of Matheus Cunha in place of Igor Thiago and he’s made a massive difference up front for this Brazil side in the false-9 position, we’ll talk about Vinicius Junior a bit later but he’s really found his feet for Brazil this tournament which bodes well for the future under Ancelotti anyway. Are Brazil real contenders for the World Cup? I think they are.
Scotland will need a miracle now to qualify for the Round of 32. Scotland came into this game knowing a win or a draw would almost certainly qualify them for the next round but even a 1 or 2 goal defeat might give them a chance but with -3 goal difference I can’t see Scotland making it to the Round of 32, their performance tonight was absolutely appalling with schoolboy errors from the back giving Brazil chance after chance which led to the first goal and should have led to the second. They would have been lucky to go into the break only one goal down but that second Vinicius Junior goal was a dagger to Scotland’s World Cup, their identity at this tournament has been so strange trying to build from the back when most of their defenders are awful on the ball whilst also creating nothing going forward only scoring one goal all tournament. They had hoped that the likes of McGinn and Mctominay would bring some quality to the midfield but both of them have had sub-par tournaments to say the least, ultimately I think Scotland’s World Cup journey is over and they only really have themselves to blame.
Vinicius Junior has finally appeared on the scene for Brazil. We’ve been waiting quite some time for Vinicius Junior to finally turn up in a Brazil shirt ever since he rose to prominence for Real Madrid in 2021 and I think it’s safe to say this World Cup has been his breakthrough for Brazil, it’s no surprise that it took Ancelotti to unlock Vini as the Italian clearly knows how to get the best out of him which we’ve now seen in the first three group games were he’s won player of the match in each one. When he’s the main man in the team he seems to have more confidence in front of goal which we did see at times this season at Real Madrid when Mbappe was injured and we are now seeing it for the first time in a Brazil shirt, if his form continues going into the knockouts Brazil are going to be a scary opposition for anyone. Can Vini lead Brazil to a World Cup?
How does this leave the group? With this result Brazil top the group with Morocco in 2nd, Scotland in 3rd and Haiti in 4th after the other game in the group ended 4-2 to Morocco, it’s looking like it will be Netherlands vs Morocco in the next round with Brazil taking on possibly Japan. That could change after tomorrow’s games in that group but it would be tough games for both Brazil and Morocco if it does stay that way, Scotland are all but out with a -3 goal-difference and would need a literal miracle to stay as one of the top 8 best 3rd place teams. some big games coming up over the next few days. Should be good fun.