McGinn calls on Scotland to show 'personality' against Brazil

John McGinn wants Scotland to show “more of our personality” when they take on Brazil in their final group match of the World Cup. Scotland lost 1-0 to Morocco on Friday, leaving them third in Group C. They face five-time world champions Brazil on Wednesday. A win would be enough to see Scotland through, while a draw could also be enough.

Scotland have never progressed beyond the group stages of a World Cup and McGinn believes they need to be better at being assertive against Brazil than against Morocco. “We have come a long way as a country and as a group,” McGinn said. “They [Morocco] have elite players, but we also have elite players, so we have to start showing more of our personality, but we also have to be proud of how we responded.

“We could have succumbed, but in the second half we showed a lot more character and intent and on another day we might have drawn or even won that game. We know what we have to do and we're excited about it. These will be different circumstances, but we have prepared ourselves for them. We are looking forward to the match, a big moment for us.

“Brazil is a famous football service, full of players playing at a high level, so we have to be at our best to get something out of the match, but we are excited about the challenge.”


Morocco opened the scoring after 14 seconds, scoring the fastest goal of the 2026 World Cup so far. Scotland's starting XI against Morocco featured players with a combined 609 caps, their highest ever for a match in history. However, they conceded a goal within the first two minutes of an important match for the first time – the earliest they had ever conceded was the fourth minute, in World Cup matches against Paraguay in 1958 and Brazil in 1998.

Scotland had just six attempts, conceding none on target, although they were denied two penalty claims. “We don't make the decisions, but I definitely think the big moments didn't go our way,” McGinn said. "In the second half we showed a lot more intention, a lot more courage to hurt them. But when you don't create clear chances in open play, you need certain moments of luck against the top teams.

"We could have collapsed after the goal, but we didn't. Did we play great? No, but they are a top team and they limit you to very little, so when you get those chances and they make mistakes – like tackling someone in the box wrongly – it's a mistake that isn't punished, it's just football and you take the hit, keep your head up and you're ready for Wednesday.”

Morocco completed 601 passes, the most by an African side in a World Cup match on record since 1966, and Mohamed Ouahbi praised the control his team had. He said: “I see it as progress compared to the first match. Ultimately we are happy with the result; We wanted three points and we got them. That was the main goal. I believe we controlled the game but when you don't score a second goal you obviously have to defend because Scotland had a very intense approach with very long balls. But I couldnot be happier with the performance.

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