Scotland in the World Cup: What does Scotland need to qualify for the knockout stages?

First, South Africa beat South Korea 1-0 to clinch one of the top two places in their group, meaning South Korea – who have a better goal difference than Scotland – dropped to third place.

After that, Ecuador achieved an unexpected victory over Germany 2-1 to finish third in its group with four points and qualify for the round of 32.

Sweden then tied with Japan 1-1, also qualifying from third place with four points.

Scotland’s chances of qualifying then fell to 6.89%, according to Opta, but are now down to 5.49% after Paraguay drew with Australia which suits both sides.

These results leave Scotland eighth out of 12 teams currently in third place and on the verge of missing out on the knockout stage.

If the third-place teams finish equal on points, seeding is then determined by goal difference.

This means Scotland will need to hope that at least four third-placed teams cannot reach all three points, or do so with a worse goal difference than them.

At the moment, there are four teams ranked below Scotland who have played just two matches, while a further two teams are level on points with a game to play.