After all the talk of showing no fear and all the promises that Scotland would markedly improve from the Morocco game, this was a feeble effort.
Steve Clarke’s players remain in the World Cup purely based on rudimentary arithmetic.
Were results elsewhere in the coming days to dictate that this adventure is over, however, it would feel like a small mercy.
For all that a place in the last 32 would represent new ground being broken, you’d have to question what pleasure would be derived from being toyed with again.
Scotland scarcely laid a glove on the five-times world champions. They looked timid and unsure that they even belonged here. It was a tough watch.
Inevitably, the brickbats will rain down on the manager in the coming days. But perhaps it’s time for people to consider that the blame does not solely rest with him.
Scotland players react as the concession of another goal leaves them with a mountain to climb
In the same way that it wasn’t Steve Clarke’s fault that Grant Hanley was dreaming at the start of the Morocco match, you could hardly blame him for Scott McKenna’s aberration which saw the Scots fall behind inside seven minutes.
Andy Robertson won the ball then gave it away again as Vinicius Junior claimed his second on the cusp of half-time.
To stand a ghost of a chance of taking something, Clarke couldn’t afford a failure in his side and required virtuoso performances from his leading men.
Instead, individual errors were made and the star men did not show up. The story of this tournament.
Underwhelming in the first two games, this was Scott McTominay’s chance to announce his prodigious talent to the world. He did not take it.
He seemed to invent new ways to give the ball away. Bluntly, were it not for his reputation, he would have been subbed at the half-time whistle. That was to be Robertson’s fate.
Brazil forward Rayan sends an effort goalwards as Scott McKenna tries in vain to stop him
John McGinn has bustled about in Boston and scored his country’s first goal on this stage in 28 years. Yet his displays were decent yet not devastating. That theme continued.
Ben Gannon-Doak’s inclusion from the off contradicted the theory that Clarke is an inherently cautious manager. There was no shortage of effort from the winger. But his frustrations illustrated the levels which exist in football. He’s a fine young player with an awful long way to go.
With pass marks scarce throughout the side, the only consolation was that Scotland didn’t find themselves on the wrong end of a cricket score. This could have been anything.
If there’s a right way to lose a football match, this, assuredly, was not it.
