Scotland's World Cup Fate: The Goal Difference Calculator Nobody Wants to Do

[Emma92]

Scotland are out. Or are they? Three points. Minus two goal difference. The expanded 48-team World Cup format means eight third-placed teams advance to the Round of 32. Six groups produce third-placed teams. Scotland need their minus two goal difference to be better than enough of those other third-place finishers. The calculation is painful. Scotland beat Haiti one nil. Lost to Morocco nil one. Lost to Brazil nil three. Group C is done. Now Scotland watch every other group's final matches and calculate. It's the World Cup equivalent of checking results from grounds you weren't even playing at. The waiting is its own kind of torture.

[Neon Grace]

The Brazil match scoreline is the problem. Winning one nil against Haiti and losing one nil to Morocco is fine. Zero three to Brazil is the damage

[Kev5]

Scotland are checking results from groups they never played in hoping for chaos. That's the World Cup experience in all its absurdity

[TeddyWhelan]

Clarke deserves credit regardless of outcome. Scotland at their first World Cup since 1998. They won a match. They competed properly

[BretHart_Mike]

The agonising wait to find out if you advanced without playing another game is uniquely cruel tournament football experience

[Nina_20]

Scottish fans at home watching other groups' final matches and calculating goal differences is peak football support

[CobaltCanopy]

If Scotland sneak through on goal difference and then beat a top team in the Round of 32 it becomes one of the great tournament stories