Brazil beats Scotland to win Group C in World Cup despite Morocco’s comeback win over Haiti
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. —Vinícius Júnior scored two goals, Matheus Cunha also scored and five-time World Cup champion Brazil beat Scotland 3-0 on Wednesday, advancing to the knockout stage as the Group C winner.
Vinícius — who has a goal in all three of Brazil’s group matches — scored in the seventh minute and again just before halftime, tying Norway’s Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappé with of France with four goals, one behind Lionel Messi of Argentina.
Brazil reached the knockout rounds for the 15th consecutive World Cup, with Morocco finishing second in the group.
Neymar entered as a substitute in the 76th, making his debut after a right calf injury sidelined him for Brazil’s first two matches. The majority-Brazilian crowd at Hard Rock Stadium began chanting his name midway through the second half as he got off the bench and began doing warmup sprints on the sideline — and fans roared as he trotted onto the pitch.
Neymar is Brazil’s career scoring leader with 79 goals in 130 international appearances. The 34-year-old forward appeared in each of the past three World Cups for Brazil, scoring eight goals.
Scotland is playing in its first World Cup since 1998 and has become one of the more interesting teams of the tournament. Its dedicated fans, known as the Tartan Army, brought a party atmosphere to the Boston and Miami areas ahead of their team’s matches.
Scotland hasn’t advanced past the group stage in nine tries.
Morocco comes back to beat impressive Haiti
Soufiane Rahimi and Gessime Yassine came off the bench to help Morocco rally for a 4-2 victory over Haiti on Wednesday and erase the Caribbean nation’s hopes of a first ever point at the World Cup.
Morocco, which became the first African team to reach the World Cup semifinals four years ago in Qatar, twice came from behind against a team playing on soccer’s biggest stage for the first time in 52 years.
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Rahimi’s deflected shot in the 78th minute put Morocco ahead 3-2 and Yassine killed off any chance of an upset with a goal in the 89th.
Morocco advanced to the round of 32 in second place behind Brazil in Group C.
Morocco, which won the most recent Africa Cup of Nations, has ambitions go deep again this year. But it was given a scare by Haiti, which is 74 places below Morocco in the FIFA rankings.
Haiti took a surprise lead in the 10th minute with a goal that was more than five decades in the making.
Lenny Joseph’s back-heeled flick at the near post beat Morocco goalkeeper Yassine Bounou and he became his country’s first scorer at a World Cup since Emmanuel Sanon in 1974, which was Haiti’s only other appearance at the tournament.
Morocco pushed for an equalizer and Achraf Hakimi finally got it in the 39th minute. Haiti keeper Johny Placide managed to get a hand to Bilal El Khannouss’ deflected cross, but couldn’t prevent Hakimi from bundling the ball over the line.
Although Morocco looked to be ready to explode for more goals, it was Haiti that again took the lead four minutes later when Wilson Isidor scored from outside the box with a shot that flew into the top corner.
There was still time for another goal at the end of a thrilling half with Ismael Saibari sweeping Hakimi’s cross past Placide in stoppage time to make it 2-2 at the break.
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It was Saibari’s third goal of the tournament.
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