Kenny McLean has insisted that Scotland still have more to offer as they gear up for a historic World Cup clash against Brazil in Miami on Wednesday night. The Norwich City midfielder believes the team can draw positives from their frustrating 1-0 defeat to Morocco, despite conceding after just 70 seconds.
Scotland's World Cup Hopes Hinge on Brazil Showdown
Following Friday's loss, Scotland have one final opportunity to secure a place in the knockout stages for the first time in their history. A point against the Samba stars in the sweltering heat of the Sunshine State would guarantee progression, while even a narrow defeat might suffice to advance as one of the best third-placed sides. However, Scotland's performance must improve against Group C leaders Brazil after underwhelming displays in the win over Haiti and the loss to Morocco, where McLean's side were unfortunate not to be awarded at least one penalty.
McLean is adamant the Scots will rise to the occasion when they tackle Carlo Ancelotti's side. "We will look to improve again because there is still more to come from us, which is good, and that [Friday] was [us] against a very good team," he said. "After a loss, there is always going to be that disappointment but I think there is plenty we can take from the game."
Morocco Test Reveals Scotland's Resilience
McLean praised Scotland's character in recovering from the early setback against Morocco. "Morocco are a very good side and we went toe-to-toe with them at times and got stronger as the game went on," he explained. "Our recovery from the setback early on and the way we bounced back from that shows a lot of character because we could have gone within ourselves, but that's not what this team does. We gave everything but we just didn't have that final moment. We just couldn't get that clear-cut chance or big chance that we were after, but we pushed and did everything we could."
The midfielder acknowledged Morocco's individual quality but stressed that Scotland can still draw confidence from the performance. "It is a really good team, they showed that. They've got a lot of individual quality. But I think we can still take confidence from it. We did a lot of good things but there are things we can definitely dust up on and we'll do that."
Penalty Appeals Denied in Morocco Loss
John McGinn and Scott McTominay both went down in the box under challenges from Morocco's Neil El Aynaoui in the second half, but their penalty appeals were waved away, much to the fury of the Tartan Army. McLean commented on the incidents: "There's claims there. Commenting on them now is not going to make too much difference but we, unfortunately, can't control what goes on with that side of things. What we can do is be better and look at areas where we can do better."
McLean emphasised the importance of focusing on improvement: "We will take a lot of confidence from the things we did well, especially in the second half. I think we pinned them back quite a bit late on - which is natural - but we did that well. I think the way we took the game to a top side, we can take a lot from that."
