Scotland World Cup betting specials: In form 4/1 top goalscorer pick

After a 28-year wait since France ’98, Scotland are back on the World Cup stage this summer.

Steve Clarke has led his side back to the global showpiece following successive qualifications for the European Championships and hopes are high that the Tartan Army will march into a first ever World Cup knockout match this summer.

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World Cup – Scotland team specials betting tips

• Top Scotland Goalscorer – Lawrence Shankland @ 4/1
• Stage of Elimination – Round of 32 @ 4/5

Shankland can set the pace

It’s been a whirlwind few weeks for Lawrence Shankland. He came within a whisker of a seismic Scottish Premiership title success with Hearts – putting the Jambos in front in the final day shootout with Celtic in Glasgow, only for the Bhoys to rip away the dream in the final dramatic minutes.

Shankland then secured a move to his boyhood heroes Rangers before departing with the Scotland squad for the World Cup.

Perhaps no player in Clarke’s squad did more in their pre-tournament warmups than Shankland to enhance his case.

He scored twice in the come-from-behind win over Curacao at Hampden Park and notched a goal and an assist in the 4-0 win over Bolivia in New Jersey.

He started alongside Che Adams in that contest and it will be interesting to see if Clarke deploys two strikers in the opening game against Haiti.

Adams is the more experienced international forward, but Shankland has some very useful form lately and fired 16 league goals for Hearts despite a season interrupted by injuries. He’s a cool finisher and goes into that Haiti game in high spirits.

Knockout blow unlikely for Tartan Army

If Scotland finish third in Group C – likely behind Brazil and Morocco – they have the possibility of facing a group winner that may come from the likes of Germany, France, Norway or co-hosts Mexico.

Should Clarke’s side manage to finish second in their group, they will face the winners of Group F – Netherlands, Japan, Sweden or Tunisia.

This will be Scotland’s ninth World Cup and, thus far, they have never gone beyond the group stages.

The expanded format has created a genuine hope that this squad can correct that unwanted statistic and facing Haiti – ranked 83rd in the world – in their opener looks like the pivotal game.

If they can win that one in Foxborough on Saturday night, they’ll return to the same venue on June 19 seeking to upset a Morocco side who went all the way to the semi-finals in Qatar four years ago.

Scotland should have enough to progress from the group stage this time, but they will start as underdogs against almost all of the nations they can possibly face in the last-32 and their dream may end there.

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