John McGinn embodies why Scotland ended 36-year World Cup hoodoo in nervy Haiti win
Scotland’s long-awaited World Cup return began with three points, plenty of nerves and very little comfort. Obviously.
Steve Clarke’s side didn’t quite impose themselves as the favourites they were against Haiti but, after spending 28 years as World Cup spectators rather than participants, they were always likely to labour their way through on Sunday morning.
It would have been easier to cave than blow Haiti away, and Scotland are not a team that does things the easy way – just look at how they got to the 2026 World Cup and that night at Hampden against Denmark.
While Scotland have an annoying habit of making things unnecessarily tricky, it’s clear that this is a team more equipped to deal with the moment than any other in the 21st century.
The Tartan Army have had some decent players, but never anything resembling a decent team before Clarke took over in 2019.
Clarke will go down as one of Scotland’s greatest managers considering how many major tournaments (three) he has qualified for, but there is no doubt he has benefited from a more favourable qualification process and a strong squad filled with Premier League and Serie A players.
And if Scotland get through to the knockout stage of this World Cup, they will be helped massively by the best third-placed team rule, with a victory against Haiti on matchday one probably good enough to progress and create some long-overdue history.
It might look like we are doing exactly this, but take nothing away from the Scotland manager, who has probably done better than anyone else would have.
He is not a flashy manager and, despite the household names available to him, it’s not exactly a flashy squad.
However, it’s a squad with the required experience, playing for top clubs, ready for the big moments and ready for this World Cup in North America.
John McGinn epitomises this.
A fantastic footballer, the Aston Villa captain has scored some gigantic goals in his career and has been learning and improving under a world-class manager in Unai Emery for the last three and a half years.
A scorer in big Champions League, Europa League and Premier League games, McGinn won’t have scored many goals bigger than the one against Haiti, and no goal will come close to meaning as much to him and so many others.
Again, his goal – the only one in Scotland’s edgy 1-0 win – was far from pretty and likely would have been blocked or saved if not for a crucial touch that gave Haiti captain and goalkeeper Johny Placide no chance.
McGinn is a big-game player and the fact Scotland have players like him in abundance makes them a much more dangerous proposition than at the previous two European Championships and with any other squad this century, for that matter.
As well as McGinn, they have Andy Robertson – debatably Liverpool’s greatest-ever left-back – captaining the side, 2024/25 Serie A Player of the Year and certified superstar Scott McTominay, and Lewis Ferguson, who captained Bologna to their first Coppa Italia since 1974.
While not as successful as those four players, Scotland can also lean on Bournemouth duo Ryan Christie and Ben Gannon-Doak, former Arsenal left-back Kieran Tierney, and Premier League right-backs Aaron Hickey and Nathan Patterson.
This is the squad tasked with making Scotland proud after 28 years away from the biggest tournament in sport, and they navigated their opening fixture in 2026 exactly as expected: very nervously.
These supporters have been through an awful lot and went through the wringer again as Haiti pushed them all the way and were actually the better side.
That extra bit of quality was too much for them, and the big-game know-how in Scotland’s ranks was ultimately the key difference.
Bloody hell did Scotland hold on, though. Oof. That really wasn’t pretty, but a first World Cup win since 1990 is all that matters.
Clarke’s men lived dangerously and were perhaps fortunate it wasn’t as one-sided as expected, like when a wasteful Switzerland conceded a 95th-minute equaliser against Qatar hours earlier.
That was not a competitive game and Switzerland were caught on their heels, whereas Haiti’s ability to keep the ball well and put Scotland under sustained pressure kept the favourites on their toes.
It was tense, but it’s three points for the Tartan Army. Just.
Three points they have waited 36 years for. Simply a match they have waited 28 years to play. A national anthem they have longed to sing at a World Cup for nearly three decades. And my word did they sing it.
Scotland are back, and their return went exactly as you’d expect from a team that never do things the easy way.
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