Scotland at World Cup: Steve Clarke's side cannot concede early again against Brazil, says Kris Boyd
Scotland must not concede another early goal against Brazil in their final Group C match, says Kris Boyd; Scotland lost 1-0 to Morocco with Ismail Saibari scoring after 70 seconds; Steve Clarke's team meet Brazil on Wednesday in Miami
Saturday 20 June 2026 18:20, UK
Kris Boyd says Scotland cannot concede another early goal when they meet Brazil in their final Group C match at the World Cup on Wednesday after going behind after 70 seconds against Morocco.
Steve Clarke made a number of changes to his starting line-up with the hope of frustrating their highly-fancied opponents on Friday night but were undone by an Ismail Saibari strike after just two minutes which proved to be the winner.
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A victory would have seen Scotland qualify from the group stages for the first time in a major tournament, but they still have a fair chance of making the last 32, either by beating Brazil or by finishing as one of the best third-placed teams.
However, that could rely on goal difference and Boyd says Scotland cannot afford another slow start against the five-time world champions in Miami.
"I think it will be more of the same as we saw against Morocco, but you have to empathise the point - do not concede an early goal because all of a sudden then everything changes," Sky Sports pundit Boyd said.
"Brazil are in a fantastic position themselves now after thrashing Haiti, so they will be through. It will be difficult for Scotland.
"Brazil might not have the superstars they had in previous years, but they have still got top players there who can cause you problems - we see it every week with their club teams.
"Scotland need to be switched on and must not concede an early goal. They have to play their way into the game then, all of a sudden, they can feel as though they are part of the match.
"If you go back to the Morocco game, I just felt as though Scotland lacked that belief that they should have been on the same pitch as Morocco for large parts of that first half."
Boyd: Brazil will cause Scotland problems
Brazil started their World Cup campaign with a draw against Morocco before a 3-0 win over Haiti put them in a more comfortable position in Group C.
Ancelotti rang the changes for the second game after a somewhat lacklustre performance in that opening day draw and will have to wait to find out the full extent of an injury to Raphinha after the Barcelona forward went off against Haiti.
However, despite that, Boyd is under no illusion as to the quality in the Brazil side and fully expects Clarke to set his Scotland team out to be hard to break down first and foremost.
"It will be very difficult, there is no getting away from it," Boyd said. "Brazil might not have the players that they had in 1998 or in previous years, but they have still got talented footballers who will cause Scotland problems.
"He might make changes, but I don't expect Steve to change the formation because, if you do, you leave yourself wide open to being cut apart and he won't want that. You look at the start we had against Morocco; we were still in that game - the last action of the match was Scotland having a corner kick. That could have led to a goal - it didn't - but we were still in the game with the opportunity to pick up a point.
"I think the message will be that we have got to start the game better. Scotland were spooked after that goal. In the build-up you felt as though they were coming up against a far superior team, they have scored after 71 seconds and, all of a sudden, you are thinking 'wow, what's happening here'.
"You felt as though it could have got a lot worse for Scotland, but you've got to learn from that, start the Brazil game positively and see what happens from there.
"I don't expect Steve to change the formation, I think he will play in a formation that is hard to beat but we have got players who can make a difference from the bench, we saw that in glimpses against Morocco but hopefully we can get it over the line."
Clarke: The games don't get much easier
Steve Clarke says Scotland's players will "suffer" the disappointment of their loss to Morocco before getting ready for Brazil next week.
The Scotland boss was proud of his players' efforts against Morocco but says he has to give them time to get over that defeat before looking for the result that could guarantee a place in the knockout stages.
"Yeah, of course (plenty of confidence), but first of all you have to let the players suffer a little bit over the next 48 hours because that's what they'll do, they don't like losing against anybody," Clarke said.
"So we'll rest, recover and ready to go again. The games don't get much easier though, eh?
"I thought we picked ourselves up, first half, to be fair. Maybe we took 10 minutes to get in it again because obviously when you get a setback like that, it is really difficult to respond.
"Weaker teams would have crumbled against that quality of opposition but we dug in, we got ourselves back in the game, started moving the ball about a little bit better.
"I thought second period of the first half after the hydration break, we were good in the game, we had a good momentum going into half-time and we carried that into the second half. We had a right go.
"Proud of the players, but obviously we're all devastated and disappointed that we didn't get the result we wanted so that we can carry on in this competition as long as we can."
