There were moments. McGinn and McTominay both had penalty shouts waved off, and Dykes had the chance off a late header that he'll see in his sleep. But Scotland barely tested Yassine Bounou in open play, and Angus Gunn had to be the best player on the pitch in dark blue just to keep the deficit at one. They head to Brazil needing a result, which is the sentence nobody wanted to write.
This was the cold-blooded Morocco — score early, suffocate everything after. Brahim Diaz was the conductor, Saibari took the finish, and the back four of Hakimi, Diop, Riad and Mazraoui never let Scotland's box become a problem. Ounahi nearly had a second in the 10th. Hakimi and El Khannouss both forced excellent Gunn saves.
Three points, clean sheet, and they did it without showing Brazil much. The Atlas Lions are essentially through to the Round of 32 already, and with the way they managed this 90, they look every bit the team that's expected to push Brazil for top spot in the group.
We backed Morocco on the moneyline and Morocco on the -0.5 spread, and called the under 2.5. Clean sweep. The market had Morocco around 58-60% to win outright and that read like the floor — they were the better side and proved it inside 90 seconds. Under 2.5 was the easy one once Morocco scored early and decided defending the lead was more fun than pressing for a second.
The group picture is now exactly what the prices said it would be: Morocco are 99% to advance to the Round of 32, Scotland drop to roughly 65% and need something off Brazil on matchday 3. Brazil-Morocco for first place is the headline. Scotland is suddenly playing for the best-thirds math.
Brazil0-3
Morocco0-1
Haiti1-0
Canada3-0
Netherlands1-1Haiti4-2Scotland1-0Brazil1-1