{"id":5101,"date":"2026-06-20T01:25:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T01:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/?p=5101"},"modified":"2026-06-20T01:25:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T01:25:21","slug":"4-takeaways-from-moroccos-hard-fought-win-vs-scotland-and-the-tartan-army","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/?p=5101","title":{"rendered":"4 Takeaways From Morocco&#039;s Hard-Fought Win vs. Scotland And The Tartan Army"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"subnav-title ff-ffc bold fs-23 lh-25 uc pd-b-10\">\n            POPULAR SEARCHES\n          <\/p>\n<p class=\"subnav-title ff-ffc bold fs-23 lh-25 uc pd-b-10\">\n            BROWSE BY\n          <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Morocco got the job done in Boston. Scotland&#8217;s Tartan Army won everything else.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Morocco didn&#8217;t dazzle. It didn&#8217;t need to.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>In the teams&#8217; second match of the 2026 World Cup on Friday, a 1-0 win over Scotland at Boston Stadium \u2014 settled inside 71 seconds and fiercely defended afterward \u2014 moved Mohamed Ouahbi&#8217;s side to the top of Group C. This left Scotland in third place with a match against Brazil up next on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Here are my takeaways:<\/p>\n<p><span>(Photo by Craig Williamson\/SNS Group via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>This wasn&#8217;t the swaggering Morocco that bullied Brazil for 45 minutes last week. This was the other kind of good team \u2014 the kind that scores early, rides its luck and refuses to break.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>The Atlas Lions blitzed Scotland from the whistle, then spent the second half inviting pressure they had no need to invite. Yassine Bounou was barely worked, but the back line creaked, the lead never felt safe, and a sharper Scotland might have made Morocco pay.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>It didn&#8217;t. And that&#8217;s the point.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>One point ahead of Scotland, Morocco tops the group with the knockout stage math firmly in its own hands \u2014 all under a rookie coach at his first senior tournament. Ugly wins are still wins. The successful sides learn to love them.<\/p>\n<p><span>(Photo by Ulrik Pedersen\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/span> <!--&gt;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Two games, two goals, two of the finest finishes of the tournament. Remember the name \u2014 though you've had 71 seconds to learn it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>The PSV man opened against Brazil with a screamer. He topped it against Scotland: collecting Brahim D\u00edaz's pass, selling Angus Gunn a cross that never came, then ripping it into the top corner.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Fastest goal of this World Cup. Fastest in Morocco's World Cup history. He's done it twice now, both teed up by Brahim D\u00edaz \u2014 a partnership defenses haven't started to solve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Biggest breakout of the tournament so far? You could definitely make the argument. Saibari is stringing the stunners\u00a0together. He's ruthless and always arrives half a second before the defender. Morocco is creating a new household name at this tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span>(Photo by Catherine Ivill - AMA\/Getty Images)<\/span> --><\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Steve Clarke rolled the dice \u2014 Kieran Tierney, Nathan Patterson and Ryan Christie all put in, Che Adams left alone up top, Scott McTominay and Lewis Ferguson were tasked with holding the midfield \u2014 and watched that midfield cave anyway.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>That&#8217;s the story of the match. Morocco&#8217;s Neil El Aynaoui and Ayyoub Bouaddi were tough to beat in the center, Ounahi drifted into the gaps, and Scotland was outnumbered, out-passed and pinned back. The 71-second gut-punch didn&#8217;t help, but the deeper problem was the control they never had.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>They were braver after the break \u2014 and they&#8217;ll rue the moment that came with it. Scott McGinn tumbled under El Aynaoui&#8217;s challenge in the box. With the Tartan Army howling, the referee and VAR decided not to award a foul. A penalty there, and it&#8217;s a different night. Fine margins. Scotland ended up on the wrong side of all of them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>The dream remains intact thanks to that narrow 1-0 win over Haiti, but the stiffest test now awaits in Miami against Brazil.<\/p>\n<p><span>(Photo by Marc Atkins\/Getty Images)<\/span> <!--&gt;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Scotland may have lost the match. Its supporters lost nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>An estimated 40,000-plus people made the trip \u2014 kilts, bagpipes and vibes all cleared by FIFA \u2014 turning Boston into one long ceilidh. They drank the bars dry. They sang \"Flower of Scotland\" at Fenway. They rode the City Hall Plaza slide. One local, on Reddit, surrendered early: \"I, for one, welcome our new kilted overlords.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>The city surrendered officially, too. Boston and Glasgow announced a sister-city partnership, and the mayor thanked the Tartan Army by name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>For 28 years, they waited to follow this team to a World Cup. Twenty-eight years \u2014 and they've treated every minute like a festival. The result in Foxborough stings. The trip won't. Nobody does this quite like them. Their appearance alone has been one of the most feel-good takeaways from this tournament.<\/p>\n\n--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Morocco got the job done in Boston. Scotland&#8217;s Tartan Army won everything else. Morocco didn&#8217;t dazzle. It didn&#8217;t need to. In the teams&#8217; second match of the 2026 World Cup on Friday, a 1-0 win over Scotland at Boston Stadium \u2014 settled inside 71 seconds and fiercely defended afterward \u2014 moved [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}