\n<\/p>\n
From the worst imaginable start, things didn’t take the turn many Scotland fans would have feared they might.<\/p>\n
The script \u2013 tightening up the left flank and asking Tierney to follow Hakimi around like a dog \u2013 was ripped apart before many punters had taken their seats.<\/p>\n
Against Brazil, Morocco displayed not only their class but their tendency to start strongly. Scotland were well aware of the threat, they just couldn’t contain it.<\/p>\n
But once their shape solidified and they settled, Clarke’s side managed to stifle their opponents somewhat.<\/p>\n
Sure, they still rode their luck and collective gulps were taken a number of times as the African champions moved the ball about with ease and searched for a second, but there wasn’t a capitulation of any kind.<\/p>\n
Instead, there was control and aggression as the game grew on, opening the door to the optimism once more.<\/p>\n
The introduction of the electric and energetic Ben Gannon-Doak was vital, with a natural winger willing and keen to test a tiring Moroccan backline.<\/p>\n
The decision to start Tierney can be understood, but perhaps the lively Bournemouth wide man would have offered an earlier outball.<\/p>\n
A confusing end, where few knew if the final whistle had peeped, saw the boys in dark blue scattered around with their hands on their heads and knees.<\/p>\n
They gave it a real go after a nightmarish start. Something to take to Miami\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From the worst imaginable start, things didn’t take the turn many Scotland fans would have feared they might. The script…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}