Steve Clarke believes Scotland can use their underdog status to their advantage against “real deal” Morocco on Friday.
The Scots are at the World Cup finals for the first time in 28 years and began their campaign with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Haiti at Boston Stadium in Foxborough on Saturday.
A point against Morocco, who drew 1-1 with Brazil in their opening Group C game, would all but guarantee a place in the knockout stages for the first time.
Clarke knows Morocco, ranked sixth in the world compared to Scotland’s 37th, are heavy favourites, but, speaking at the Boston Stadium after all his squad trained earlier at the Revolution Training Centre next door, he said: “Against difficult opponents we have to be very good. We understand that.
“But sometimes the Scottish psyche and the Scottish mentality means we are a little bit more comfortable when we are the underdogs.
“We were the favourites against Haiti and we found the game a struggle but we managed to win.
“This time we are the underdogs and sometimes Scotland prefer it that way.
“They are very talented, they are fantastic players.
“They have a good work ethic, they have power and pace. They have little bits of skill, they can open a game, they can create one v ones, they can beat you one v one.
“For me, Morocco are the real deal, a top side. As I keep saying, we have to be at our very, very best to compete.
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“Any time you play a team that’s inside the world’s top 10 you know you are going to have to be good at what you do without the ball.
“You’re going to have to be good at what you do with the ball. So we are under no illusions about the size of the task.
“Morocco are a really, really good side.
“They reached the last four of the last World Cup and I have a feeling this Moroccan team is probably slightly better than that so that gives you an idea of the task ahead.
“We expect Morocco probably to have more of the ball than us, more possession.
“What we have to make sure is that when we have the ball, we can be a big threat to Morocco.”
While the three points garnered against Haiti may turn out to be enough to get through, a further points against Morocco would almost certainly see the Scots achieve the holy grail of the knockout stages.
However, Clarke is in no mood to get bogged down with permutations.
He said: “We just have to play the game. Like Haiti, just play the game.
“The first thing is to try and win the game and if you can’t win it, don’t lose it.
“Permutations, whatever you want to look at, that’s for you guys [media] and all the punters to think about, not for us.”
