Former Scotland player Craig Burley reckons the Scottish team don’t deserve to make the FIFA World Cup knockout rounds. Steve Clarke’s men suffered a 0-3 loss against Brazil at Miami on Wednesday.
Scotland had opened their World Cup campaign with a 1-0 win against Haiti but suffered a 0-1 loss against Morocco in the next match. Against the five-time champions, Brazil, Scotland were not up to the mark and their defensive errors cost them the first goal, which was scored by Vinicius Jr.
Scott McKenna and Jack Hendry made schoolboy errors and Brazil’s striker Vini Jr. was able to capitalise.
“I have no problem with Scotland going out, or any of the teams down there, because, I am sorry, I know this is the way the bracket works with 48 teams, but we are just rewarding complete mediocrity,” he said.
“They don’t really deserve to go through if we are being honest and I don’t think they will, barring getting lucky.
“In fact, if they do go through, I think it is just going to continue the embarrassment of looking like what Scotland are.
“It is kind of second rate isn’t it, they just don’t have the players, they have got a couple, but they just don’t have the players of yesteryear, and I am not talking about the team I played in, although it had some very good players.
“The team Stevie [Nicol] played in had world class players, guys at the back like [Alan] Hansen and others who could not even get a game at times for different reasons but could pass the ball for fun with anyone — they just don’t have that.”
Burley said there should not be any celebrations if Scotland manage to make it to the round of 32.
“If they go through, fine, but there should be no celebration if this is the first ever Scotland team to qualify from the group stage, because it is just really by default,” he added.
“They might do it but they haven’t got much leeway because they are six of eight and I think the likelihood is they will probably get knocked out.”
As things stand, Scotland might qualify and face Mexico at the Estadio Azteca in the Mexican capital.
