Scotland’s path to World Cup glory has become a bit more clear after the draw was made for the group stages on Friday in Washington DC.
The Scots have been paired alongside Brazil, Morocco and Haiti in Group C in their first World Cup since 1998.
Ironically, they will face two of the sides that they played back then in USA, Mexico and Canada next summer.
Scotland were drawn against Brazil in France 98 and have faced the South American side five out of the last seven World Cups we have been at.
We’ve also got Morocco in Group C, with Tartan Army fans still suffering from PTSD after their 3-0 drubbing in Saint-Etienne 28 years ago.
Haiti will prove to be no pushovers having qualified top of their Concacaf group and it’s the first time we will face the Caribbean nation.
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If Scotland are to have a realistic chance of qualifying from Group C then they need to get off to a winning start against Haiti on June 13.
Then we have got games against Morocco – who were semi-finalists four years ago – and five-time winners Brazil in the third group game.
Should Scotland unexpectedly win the group then they would play the runners up of Group F. That group has the Netherlands, Japan, Uefa Path winner B (Ukraine, Sweden, Poland, Albania).
If Steve Clarke‘s men finished second in the group then they would play the winners of Group F most likely the Netherlands and that would be played in Guadelope in Mexico.
If they finished third in the group and were one of the eight best third-ranked sides they would play the winners of Group A, E or I.
That could be someone like Mexico, Germany or France in the last 32 but there are hundreds of possible permutations.
Let’s assume Scotland finish second in Group C and played the Netherlands in the last 32, should they win that then they would play the winners of the game between the Group A runner and Group B runner up.
That could mean facing Mexico, South Korea or Japan in the last 16.
Should they progress past this stage then potentially France or Germany await in the quarter-finals, assuming they would be the winners of Group E and I.
We are in dreamland here but humour us for a second.
If we beat France or Germany in the quarters, then the semi-final opponents could be Spain or Belgium.
And if by some minor miracle we beat Lamine Yamal and Co and made the final then Argentina or Portugal could stand in our way of us being world beaters.
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