Scotland face a mouthwatering reunion with Brazil in their first World Cup campaign since 1998 after being drawn in Group C at Friday’s ceremony.
Steve Clarke’s players will also face Morocco and Haiti on their return to the tournament, opening their campaign against the latter on 13 June. That curtain raiser will be played in either Boston or the MetLife Stadium near New York.
The Brazil game, which will be played in Miami or Atlanta on 24 June, will evoke memories of the opening match of France 98. Back then, Scotland held their own but were narrowly defeated 2-1 at Stade de France by the eventual runners-up through a heartbreaking Tommy Boyd own goal. The countries have met only once since then, in a 2011 friendly that Brazil won 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium, but the fixture used to be a regular occurrence at World Cup level. They were also drawn together in 1974, 1982 and 1990; Scotland were beaten in all of those games except a goalless draw in 1974.
Morocco, who were semi-finalists in 2022, also conjure up images of a meeting in the 1998 tournament although Scotland will not want to hark back to a 3-0 defeat that confirmed they would finish bottom of the group. This time the teams, who have not played each other since, will meet in Philadelphia or Boston on 19 June. The match against surprise qualifiers Haiti, whose only finals appearance was in 1974, will be the countries’ first meeting.
Scotland qualified thrillingly with an emotional late win against Denmark but their midfielder Ryan Christie, speaking after the draw, said they have no intention of stopping there. “We have to go over there wanting to try and prove a point,” he said. “We’re not just there to make up the numbers. We’re wanting to go and compete and get through the group phase.
“Two out of the three games are going to be massively tough and even Haiti, nobody gets to a World Cup without being a decent team. [They are] teams we’re not used to playing.”
Although they flopped at Euro 2024, Christie believes Scotland can aim higher next summer. “Hopefully, we can go this one step further this time,” he said. “We go into that tournament a little bit as the underdogs. It suits us. Hopefully, these other teams don’t know what to expect and we can surprise them a little bit.”
Wales and Northern Ireland discovered their possible opponents, although only one of them can qualify because they will compete in the same playoff quartet. Canada, Switzerland and Qatar await in Group B should either side progress.
The Republic of Ireland also have a playoff to negotiate before they can plan for the World Cup. Should they be successful, Heimir Hallgrímsson’s team will play Mexico, South Korea and South Africa in Group A. “It’s a beatable group if we think [of] ourselves in it,” Hallgrímsson said. “It’s a group we would fancy qualifying from.”
The playoff ties will take place in March, with each European team needing to navigate a semi-final and final to book their place. Wales and Northern Ireland will face a showdown in Cardiff on 31 March if the former beat Bosnia and Herzegovina at home and the latter come through a trip to Italy. Ireland, who earned their spot in dramatic fashion, will host North Macedonia or Denmark if they win their away semi-final against Czech Republic.
