\n<\/p>\n
If Scotland lose and finish with three points, there are a number of results they will need to look out for – they will want as many groups as possible with two teams finishing on fewer than three points.<\/p>\n
In Group A,<\/b> if Mexico beat the Czech Republic and South Korea beat South Africa, that would leave the team in third on one point.<\/p>\n
The next best scenario would be a big South Africa win to leave South Korea in third with three points and a poor goal difference.<\/p>\n
Wins for South Africa and the Czech Republic would spell bad news for Scotland, leaving the third-place finisher on four points.<\/p>\n
One of the few games that take place before Scotland face Brazil that has a bearing on where Scotland could finish comes in Group B.<\/b><\/p>\n
Bosnia-Herzegovina and Qatar meet three hours before Scotland play and, if they draw, both sides will have two points.<\/p>\n
In Group D, <\/b>Australia and Paraguay are second and third respectively and meet in their final game. The losers would end the group with three points, while a draw would leave both sides on four.<\/p>\n
On we go to Group E. <\/b>Ecuador and Curacao have one point apiece and play Germany and Ivory Coast respectively. Failure to win would mean whoever finishes third cannot better Scotland’s tally of three points.<\/p>\n
In Group F,<\/b> Scotland will be hoping second-placed Japan beat third-placed Sweden convincingly. A point for Sweden, though, would leave the third-placed finishers on at least four points.<\/p>\n
The key fixture in Group G<\/b> as far as Scotland are concerned is Egypt v Iran. A win for Egypt will ensure the team finishing third will have fewer than three points.<\/p>\n
It is the same situation in Group H<\/b> where Scotland fans will be rooting for Spain to beat Uruguay so the third-placed team can only finish on two points, while in Group I, a draw between Senegal and Iraq would mean the team in third will have just one point.<\/p>\n
In Group J,<\/b> Austria and Algeria – second and third respectively on three points – meet in their final group game, so Scotland would not want that to end in a draw.<\/p>\n
DR Congo and Uzbekistan are vying for third place in Group K.<\/b><\/p>\n
A win for Uzbekistan would give them three points but, with a goal difference of -7, they would need a big win against DR Congo and for Scotland to lose badly to move above them in the standings.<\/p>\n
In Group L,<\/b> a point or more for Croatia against Ghana could be bad news for Scotland as it would again leave the third-place finishers with four points.<\/p>\n
A big win for Ghana, and Panama not beating England, would be Scotland’s ideal scenario from a mathematical point of view.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If Scotland lose and finish with three points, there are a number of results they will need to look out…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5287","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\/5287","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=5287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}