While defensive organisation and resilience was the foundation of Cape Verde’s performance, they still managed to retain some semblance of attacking threat on the counter-attack, especially late in the game, to relieve some of the pressure at the back.
They might even have snatched a famous victory, with defender Borges going close with a late header and a couple of late counters threatening to catch Spain out as they poured forward looking for a winner.
Scotland will need to give the Moroccan back-line something to think about if they are to avoid a dangerous pattern of being pinned in on the edge of their own box.
Former Scotland winger Neil McCann believes the presence of Ben Gannon-Doak, a standout performer against Haiti, will be crucial in getting the Scots up the pitch.
“Ben Gannon-Doak is obviously a very big weapon for Scotland in terms of how he eliminates people in the wide area,” McCann said.
“He’s shown in his Scotland career already that he can play off the left, off the right, and standing people up and just going past them like they’re not there.
“The one thing I want to see him work on is his final ball. Getting past people generally isn’t a problem. It’s what you do once you’re in that position.
“It doesn’t matter who he’s playing against, whether it’s [Denmark’s Patrick] Dorgu, whether it’s Achraf Hakimi against Morocco, I still think he’ll create chances.”
