World Cup third-place ranking: Final table as Scotland crash out early

 Scotland’s first World Cup journey for 28 years is officially over as they crashed out in the group stage.

Steve Clarke has quickly resigned as head coach in the wake of a disappointing campaign for the Tartan Army, who have still never reached the knockout phase of football’s biggest competition in nine attempts.

Scotland began a tough Group C campaign with a nervy 1-0 win over Haiti in Boston secured by John McGinn’s second-half goal, but, despite a spirited showing, fell to 2022 semi-finalists Morocco by the same scoreline having been caught cold in just 70 seconds by Ismael Saibari.

It left them with an unenviable task in their final group contest against record five-time World Cup champions Brazil, who ran out 3-0 winners in Miami as Vinicius Jr notched a brace and Matheus Cunha also scored.

Scotland then faced an anxious wait to determine if three points would be enough to scrape into the newly-created round of 32 as one of the eight best third-place teams, alongside the 12 group winners and 12 runners-up, or if they would be one of the 16 nations exiting early from the inaugural expanded 48-team tournament.

Clarke admitted that he feared they were going home, which ultimately proved to be the case as most results then went against them, leaving them 11th in the final third-place standings and falling alongside the likes of fellow high-profile casualties Uruguay and South Korea.