FOXBOROUGH, Mass — Scotland manager Steve Clarke was “disappointed” that Morocco‘s Issa Diop escaped a red card for a foul on Ché Adams and bemoaned their slow start after they lost 1-0 at Foxborough on Friday in the World Cup.
Scotland conceded what proved to be the winning goal after just 70 seconds. Scotland’s defence was split open by a ball over the top from Brahim Díaz, with Bayern Munich-bound attacker Ismael Saibari hammering the ball home. Scotland struggled to find a foothold for the rest of the half, but did rally in the second half.
There were several marginal calls which went against Scotland, and though Clarke refrained from criticising the calls not to award penalties for challenges on John McGinn and Scott McTominay in the second half, he did question Diop only getting a yellow card for bringing down Adams in the first half.
“I was a little bit disappointed in the last man foul [from Diop on Adams],” Clarke told the BBC. “For me, Che might be clear through on goal. On another day, you might get those decisions.”
He added in his news conference: “Everyone [post-match] was talking about Scott McTominay — I thought the John McGinn one was 50/50. Che Adams was last man, a chance to go through, one on one with the goalkeeper and the ref chooses yellow and VAR backs the referee. There’s nothing we can do about it.”
Scotland’s Ryan Christie said on the BBC: “I’ve thought the one on McGinn could have been a penalty, I had a good view of that. There wasn’t many fouls getting given out there, to be honest.”
But overall, Clarke was pleased with how the team rallied after their slow start. “I wish we could start again, would have been [my first thought],” Clarke said. “We lost a poor goal — we tried to step up and let runners go in the opening moments of the game. They showed energy and invention.
“I think we picked ourselves up in the first half after it took 10 minutes to get into the game. There’s a setback which makes it hard to respond. We dug in, got ourselves back in the game, started moving the ball better. Second period after the hydration break we were good, and carried that into the second half. We’re all devastated and disappointed that we didn’t get the result as we want to carry on in this tournament as long as we can.”
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Up next for Scotland are Brazil in Miami on June 24. Scotland could yet qualify for the knockout stages of the World Cup, but could need a result to guarantee progression. “You have to let the players suffer over the next 48 hours as they don’t like losing,” Clarke said. “We’ll rest, recover and go again — the games don’t get easier.”
Clarke was impressed by his opponents, and said they can go far in the competition: “I really fancy this Morocco side to go deep in the tournament — I think they have players and ability to get to at least the last four in this one.”
