June 11 : Scotland and Haiti cannot afford to start their World Cup campaigns gently when they meet on Saturday with both teams in need of a quick win in their tournament opener ahead of tougher opposition in the next two games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Five-time world champions Brazil and Morocco – who defeated Spain and Portugal en route to the semi-finals in 2022 – are also in Group C, putting pressure on Les Grenadiers under French coach Sebastien Migne and Steve Clarke’s Scotland to take all three points at the Boston Stadium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Neither country has ever reached the knockout phase of a World Cup: Haiti lost their three group games at their only previous appearance in 1974 while Scotland have fallen at the first hurdle in all eight of theirs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the enlargement of the competition and the introduction this year of the round of 32 will make it easier than ever to advance, and a total of three points from the group stage plus a respectable goal difference are likely to be enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both teams head to Boston with confidence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
GOOD WARM-UPS<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scotland scored eight goals in two warm-up games against Curacao and Bolivia, conceding only once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clarke – leading the Scots to their first World Cup since 1998 – said he was facing “fantastic problems” selecting his starting 11 with several players hitting form. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lawrence Shankland, newly signed by Glasgow giants Rangers, scored three goals in the two recent friendlies, while Torino forward Che Adams got a brace against Bolivia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scotland midfielder Ryan Christie told the BBC that no one was complacent about Haiti – ranked 83rd by FIFA – “but it gives us the chance to get off to a good start. You probably look at the group and that’s the easiest on paper.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Haiti – bolstered by the inclusion of Jean-Ricner Bellegarde and Wilson Isidor, who both have English Premier League experience – thrashed New Zealand 4-0 before conceding two late goals to lose 2-1 to Peru in their pre-World Cup matches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Caribbean islanders, who played their home World Cup qualifying matches abroad due to gang warfare in Haiti, rely on foreign-based players with the sole exception of midfielder Woodensky Pierre. Migne, the coach, has not set foot in Haiti.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Scotland can count on their raucous Tartan Army of travelling fans, Haiti are also likely to be roared on in Boston, home to the third-biggest Haitian community in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
June 11 : Scotland and Haiti cannot afford to start their World Cup campaigns gently when they meet on Saturday with both teams in need of a quick win in their tournament opener ahead of tougher opposition in the next two games. Five-time world champions Brazil and Morocco – who defeated Spain and Portugal en […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12903],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-415936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-12903"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415936"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":415937,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415936\/revisions\/415937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}