Scotland coach Clarke: "We'll definitely be home"
June 25, 2026 · Global
Scotland coach Steve Clarke expressed pessimism after his team lost 3-0 to Brazil, which means they have to wait for the results to find out their fate in the World Cup.
Scotland coach Steve Clarke expressed confidence that his team will "come home" after suffering a 3-0 defeat to Brazil in their final World Cup group game. In the match that took place on Wednesday, two goals from Vinicius Junior and one goal from Matheus Cunha ensured Brazil took top spot in Group C.
Clarke and his team now have to mourn the mistakes they made, especially Vinicius' first goal which came from a mistake by Scott McKenna, while Jack Hendry was lucky not to be penalized by VAR after being trapped by the ball by the Real Madrid forward. Scotland recorded 21 shots, of which six were big chances as defined by Opta, but only managed 1.04 expected goals (xG) from their 14 attempts.
With this result, Scotland finished third in the group and are currently ranked seventh as the best third-placed team in the competition, where the top eight third-placed teams will advance to the round of 32. Clarke feels their chances of progressing are slim after making a fatal mistake against Brazil.
"We created chances, but it wasn't enough. Let's be honest, the best team won," Clarke told the BBC. "In the first four or five minutes we passed the ball well and then made mistakes. You can't do that at this level because it puts pressure on you and it's a long night. For sure we'll go home."
Captain John McGinn also expressed his disappointment, saying: "We are very disappointed. We conceded an unnecessary goal at the wrong time against a team who could have punished us with quality. We had a few chances, but we have to wait now. The players are very disappointed, we didn't have enough quality tonight, but we gave everything. We feel empty now. It's very unlikely to go through, but we'll wait."
Interestingly, Scotland are now the only opponent Brazil has faced eleven or more times in all competitions without losing (W9 D2), surpassing Austria (W7 D3), while Brazil are also the only team Scotland have faced five or more times without winning.