Steve Clarke is preparing to unleash Ben Gannon-Doak on Brazil as Scotland eye history in Miami.
The national team arrived in Florida on Monday night having beaten Haiti and lost to Morocco in Boston.
Were they to take a point from the five-times world champions, Clarke’s men would almost certainly make the last 32, with even a narrow defeat likely to take them through in third place.
Bournemouth winger Gannon-Doak started the first match, but had it make do with the final half hour against the North African.
Daily Mail Sport understands, however, that the 20-year is poised to be handed the task of taking the game to Carlo Ancelotti’s men.
Aaron Hickey missed the Morocco game through an unspecified injury and is also struggling for Wednesday’s defining Group C clash.
Winger Ben Gannon-Doak is set to start for Scotland against Brazil in Miami
It’s likely that Clarke will shape with a 4-5-1 as he seeks to secure the result which would take Scotland through to the knockout round of a major tournament for the first time.
The manager was criticised in some quarters for limiting Gannon-Doak’s minutes last Friday, but it’s believed he felt he’d be better deployed as a substitute to try and capitalise on the fact that Morocco’s energy tends to drop towards the end of games.
Barring any unforeseen issues in training, though, the winger will be handed a starting place as Scotland try to beat Brazil for the first time in five attempts at a World Cup.
‘I know I get questioned all the time about Ben Gannon-Doak,’ said Clarke.
‘Listen, he’s a player who can bring us something different. But my job as head coach is to make sure I use him and utilise him at the right time.
‘It doesn’t always necessarily need to be from the start, but I’m not scared to start anybody if I think he can make the team better.’
Scotland lost a goal to Morocco after 70 seconds, but were still alive in the game late on.
While the outcome was ultimately disappointing, Clarke says it’s now been processed and that the squad are now gunning for the South Americans.
‘You need 48 hours just to decompress, just to compute it,’ he added.
‘This morning I woke up and I had a great sleep last night. I slept for about four hours before the game, I slept about three hours after the game.
‘Last night, I slept for 10 hours, and I woke up this morning and I thought ‘bring it on, let’s go.’
‘We had fantastic debrief on the Morocco game where I could show them what the can improve on and hopefully we take that into this game.’
Head coach Steve Clarke believes Scotland were unlucky not to get a point against Morocco
Meanwhile, Che Adams feels Scotland belatedly showed enough against Morocco to believe that they can hurt Brazil.
Despite falling behind to Ismail Saibari’s second minute opener, Clarke’s men didn’t roll over and produced a much-improved second half display.
‘We were unlucky not to nick something there at the end, but I think the early goal killed us a little bit,’ said the Torino man.
‘Obviously, that put us on the back foot a little bit, but we reacted really well and were unlucky not to get the equaliser there at the end.
‘The confidence could have gone down after such an early goal. We could have taken two or three. So, it was brilliant character to show that sort of belief again. We were unlucky not to get what we needed.
‘We knew they were a good team. We knew what a talented group of players they have. But if you give them an early lead like that, it’s difficult to get yourself back up to it, and we didn’t manage to do that for most of the first half.
‘But towards the end, we stuck together and showed that we’re a good team, and that we deserve to be here.
‘Brazil are another really good side, but the character we’re showing has to be a positive.
‘Fact is, we’re still in the tournament going into the last group game and a big reason for that is the togetherness we have.
‘We’ve got ourselves in a great position now. We just have to keep believing and keep grinding out the games.
‘We’re a good team and we showed that towards the end because they were worried, they were scared, and we could have nicked something.
‘So now we just dust ourselves off now and keep the confidence and keep believing into the Brazil game.’
