This is the game Scotland’s World Cup has been building toward. Steve Clarke’s side need a result against Brazil in Miami tonight to keep their hopes of reaching the last 32 alive. For Everton fans, there’s another question: does Nathan Patterson keep his place at right-back?
Or does Brentford’s Aaron Hickey get the shirt back for their biggest game of the tournament so far?
Tournament of two halves… to date
Nathan Patterson’s World Cup has been mixed so far. He was on the bench for the opening win over Haiti, watching from the bench as Hickey started, and got onto the pitch only for a brief late cameo once the game was won.
Morocco changed all of that. Clarke reshuffled his back four – partly to free Kieran Tierney up to track Achraf Hakimi from left-back – and Patterson was thrown straight into the starting XI.
He played 88 minutes but it wasn’t an easy return. Ismael Saibari scored the fastest goal of the World Cup so far, finishing inside 71 seconds, and Scotland never quite clawed their way back, losing 1-0.
Patterson had a difficult opening twenty minutes but settled, as we covered in our report from that night in Foxborough, and only came off for Anthony Ralston as Clarke threw bodies forward chasing a late equaliser.
Why he’s likely to start again
The team news points one way. Hickey remains a major doubt after picking up a knock against Haiti, and Scott McKenna, while available, has been nursing a calf problem. Therefore, Clarke is short of alternatives at right-back.
Pre-match reporting suggests Patterson keeps the shirt for Brazil – squaring an odd circle where he’s gone from a peripheral figure against Haiti to first choice for the two final, crunch group games.
It matters back home, too.
David Moyes has been weighing up right-back options of his own this summer, with Ivory Coast international Guela Doue among the names linked. But a good game against a Brazil side missing Raphinha through injury but boasting a returning Neymar for the first time in nearly three years, would elevate Patterson’s stock.
On the line for Scotland
Strip away the individual subplots, and the bigger picture is ultimately what matters.
Scotland sit third in Group C on three points, with Morocco and Brazil both on four going into the final round of games. Win tonight and Clarke’s side put themselves in command of a place in the knockout stages for the first time in the country’s history.
Lose, and progression depends on results elsewhere and where Scotland rank among the World Cup’s best third-placed sides.
Everton’s wider involvement in the tournament – Patterson included – is being tracked in full on our World Cup pages.
Verdict
Nathan Patterson went from an afterthought against Haiti to Scotland’s first-choice right-back amid one tactical reshuffle, and tonight is unquestionably his toughest assignment yet.
How he copes with Vinicius Junior and company, and whether Scotland can get over the line against one of the tournament favourites, will be watched just as closely on Merseyside as in Glasgow – not least by a manager already thinking about who fills the right-back shirt next season.
Kick-off is 11pm BST in Miami. Stay with Read Everton for the aftermath of Scotland’s biggest night of the summer.
