Scotland at the FIFA World Cup Costa Rica, Sweden, and Brazil, but the Scots lost 1–0 to Costa Rica. While they recovered to beat Sweden 2–1 in their second game, they lost to Brazil in their third match 1–0 and were once again eliminated after the first round. Goalkeeper Jim Leighton fumbled a shot that allowed Brazil to score the only goal. Craig Brown guided Scotland to qualification for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, finishing as the best runners-up. Scotland were drawn against holders Brazil in the opening game of the World Cup. John Collins scored from the penalty spot to level the score at 1–1,
1998 FIFA World Cup qualification nation and defending champions, respectively. The remaining 30 places were determined by a qualification process, in which the other 174 teams, from the six FIFA confederations, competed. "12 of the 32 teams subsequently failed to qualify for the 2002 finals: Austria, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Iran, Jamaica, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Scotland and Yugoslavia." The distribution by confederation for the 1998 FIFA World Cup was: A total of 36 teams entered the competition. The Asian zone was allocated 3.5 places (out of 32) in the final tournament. There were three rounds of play: A total of 38 CAF teams entered the