Here is a coincidence nobody at the draw seemed to enjoy. The last time Scotland appeared at a World Cup, in 1998, they were handed Brazil and Morocco. Wait 28 years for the next one, and the draw in Washington reaches into the pot and pulls out, of all the teams it could have found, Brazil and Morocco. Steve Clarke’s side open against Haiti in Foxborough in the small hours of Sunday 14 June, and a generation of Scots who have never once seen their country at a World Cup finally get to.
Scotland’s Group C draw, and the echo of 1998
Pot 3 was never going to be kind, but this is about as unkind as the seedings allowed. Brazil, five-time winners, are the obvious monster of Group C. Morocco might be the more dangerous draw, an African champion side that reached the semi-finals in Qatar and has spent the years since being a problem for everyone they meet. Which leaves Haiti, back at a World Cup for the first time since 1976, as the fixture Scotland will circle and tell themselves they have to win.
The 1998 parallel is not only the two famous names. Scotland opened that tournament against Brazil and lost, lost to Morocco as well, and were home before the group finished, which by then was simply the thing Scotland did at World Cups.
All three games this time are free to air, two of them at hours that will test the Tartan Army’s devotion. Haiti kicks off at 2am UK time on Sunday 14 June, Morocco follows on Friday 19 June, and Brazil close the group in Miami on Wednesday 24 June. BBC One carries Haiti and Brazil, with ITV and STV taking the Morocco game.
For anyone stuck without a television near a 2am kick-off, our rundown on watching the World Cup free in the UK has the iPlayer and ITVX streams sorted.
Why finishing third could be enough this time
Now the part that actually changes things, the reason this is not just another qualification to enjoy and then mourn. Scotland have reached nine World Cups and never got out of the group, not one time, a record that long ago hardened from misfortune into something like national character. The tournament, though, has changed shape underneath them. It is 48 teams now, 12 groups of four, and the eight best third-placed sides go through alongside the usual two from each group. You no longer have to finish above two of your three opponents. You only have to avoid being one of the worst teams there.
That puts a knockout place within range. Haiti is a game Scotland should win. Take anything at all off Morocco and the third-place arithmetic starts to add up, whatever Brazil end up doing to them. It is worth naming the target plainly instead of hiding behind romance: not a brave group-stage exit, a real tie in the round of 32.
The reward, if they get there, could be cruel. Third place in Group C might line up France, and Kylian Mbappe, in the very next game. Exactly who Scotland would meet depends on results in the other groups, which we are tracking as the rest of the 2026 World Cup takes shape.
The squad Steve Clarke takes to America
What Scotland have is a proper spine, sturdier than it has been in years. Andy Robertson is the captain, closing on his hundredth cap, still among the best left-backs in the game on the days his body allows it. Kieran Tierney is back in the fold. The midfield is where it gets interesting, because John McGinn won a European trophy with Aston Villa last season and is not even the most talked-about player in his own engine room.
That billing belongs to McTominay, who left Manchester United for Napoli and became the player nobody at Old Trafford seemed to know they had. Twelve league goals from central midfield in his first Italian season, a Serie A title, the division’s player of the year, a spot on the Ballon d’Or shortlist. Then the overhead kick against Denmark, three minutes in, the goal that booked the World Cup place and has since been printed on a commemorative banknote, which is roughly the most Scottish way imaginable to seal qualification.
That night at Hampden was chaos. Scotland needed the win and nearly threw it away, McTominay’s opener cancelled out, Lawrence Shankland nudging them back ahead, Denmark levelling again, before Tierney and then Kenny McLean finished it 4–2 deep into the closing stages. Ben Gannon-Doak, who supplied the cross for McTominay’s goal, hands Clarke a different kind of threat to send on when a tight game needs forcing open.
There is a hole in all this, and it is the hole Scotland always seem to be carrying around. Strip out McTominay’s goals from midfield and the centre-forward question gets uncomfortable: Shankland, Ché Adams, Lyndon Dykes and George Hirst are honest, willing options, and not one of them is a striker you would trust to settle a World Cup knockout tie on his own. Against Haiti, fine. Against Morocco and Brazil, less fine, and Clarke does not obviously have a fix.
What would count as a good World Cup for Scotland
So what would success even look like? Not the trophy, and not a quarter-final run that nobody is seriously predicting. It is smaller than that, and somehow heavier: the one win, in the right game, that finally carries Scotland into a knockout round they have never reached. Beat Haiti and the country breathes out. Take something from Morocco and there are suddenly scenarios to chew over, a reason to keep the calculator within reach.
Clarke knows the other version of this story far too well. He took more or less this group to two European Championships and was home after three matches each time. Nobody understands the usual Scottish ending better than the man in the dugout. The 28-year wait was never really about reaching a World Cup. It was always going to be about what Scotland do once they are standing in one.
