\n<\/p>\n
First, South Africa beat South Korea 1-0<\/a> to snatch one of the top two places in their group, meaning South Korea – who have a better goal difference than Scotland – dropped to third.<\/p>\n After that, Ecuador produced an unexpected 2-1 victory<\/a> over Germany to finish third in their group with four points and seal a spot in the last 32.<\/p>\n Sweden then held Japan to a 1-1 draw,<\/a> also qualifying from third place with four points.<\/p>\n Scotland were down to an 6.89% chance of qualification after that, according to Opta, but are now down to 5.49% after Paraguay played out a stalemate<\/a> with Australia which suited both sides.<\/p>\n Those results leave Scotland sitting eighth out of the 12 current third-placed sides and on the brink of missing out on a knockout spot.<\/p>\n If teams in the third-place standings finish level on points, the rankings are then decided by goal difference.<\/p>\n That means Scotland will need to hope that at least four third-placed teams do not manage to reach three points, or they do so with a worse goal difference than them.<\/p>\n As it stands, there are four teams ranked below Scotland who have only played two matches, while there are two others who are level on points with a game to play. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n