World Cup 2026: Cape Verde – Scotland’s template against Morocco?

Grant Hanley and Jack Hendry showed up well in Scotland’s opening game, both making vital interventions as Haiti came on strong in search of an equaliser after John McGinn’s strike.

Whether head coach Steve Clarke retains that centre-back pairing or reintroduces the fit again Scott McKenna – he could switch to a back five and play them all – the entire Scottish defensive unit will need to show the ferocious desire to protect their goal that Cape Verde did so impressively against the Spanish.

“One of the big things Cape Verde work at, and the manager has talked about it, is the culture of the country itself and making sure that everybody buys into that. If you do that, everyone will work for each other,” said former Scotland winger Pat Nevin after covering the match at Atlanta Stadium for BBC Radio 5 Live.

“Boy, what a sight of players working for each other we saw. They spent the vast majority of the game on their own 18-yard line, not all of it, and when they broke, they were brave and they broke in numbers.

“To do that and keep that level of concentration, you don’t do that if you’re a bunch of individuals, you only do that if you’re a group, if you’re a team, if you believe in each other. And it shone through.

“I watched Sidny Cabral start the game and thought, ‘oh, my goodness, there’s a disaster waiting to happen’ because of the way he was tackling – but he got every one of them right.

“You look at Diney Borges, again, he looked like he was a kitten at the start of the game. By the end of the game, he was a lion.”