Scotland’s World Cup dream hasn’t died, but it’s on life support and the team knows exactly who to blame: themselves.
A 3-0 defeat to Brazil in their final Group C match left Scotland sitting in third place, staring at a complicated path to the knockout rounds that depends entirely on results they cannot control. Defender Nathan Patterson, who played 81 minutes before being substituted, was blunt in his assessment of what went wrong.
Self-inflicted wounds against the worst possible opponent
Patterson didn’t try to dress it up. The Everton defender acknowledged that the goals Scotland conceded were not the product of Brazilian brilliance but rather gifts wrapped and hand-delivered by his own team.
“We were trying to nullify the threats, and obviously giving them easy goals is not what you need against a team like Brazil.”
