As you made your way down the vast spiral staircase outside the Miami Stadium late on Wednesday, the body language of the respective sets of fans said it all.

With their side’s place in the knockout round assured after a comfortable 3-0 win, the Brazilians continued to samba into the night. For the dejected figures clad in dark blue, it was limbo time.

From the outset of this World Cup, it always felt like there was a reasonable chance that Steve Clarke’s players would find themselves in a very strange place once the three group games had been concluded.

The boffins had predicted that finishing with three points and a negative goal difference would leave competing nations in a bind.

Not through to the promised land of the last 32 yet not eliminated. Not yet anyway. Football purgatory, you might call it.

There was still hope, but how much? Prior to the tournament, we’d been told that sides in Scotland’s position, three points and minus three, still had a 47.3 per cent chance of progressing. But that was all based on supposition.

Scotland captain Andy Robertson admitted Scotland likely haven’t done enough to progress 

We’d never before experienced a 48-team tournament with eight of the 12 third-placed sides also progressing. So, there was no hard evidence to base our expectations on.

Even though Scotland were, going into Wednesday evening, second top of the rankings of third-placed sides, the concluding fixtures in other groups told you that they were likely to plummet down towards the cut mark. 

Better hold fire on those plans for Mexico City or a return to Boston.

Maybe the abject nature of the display against Carlo Ancelotti’s side had something to do with it, but no one from within the Scotland camp was minded to take solace in any suggestion that their chances of staying afloat in the competition were only slightly worse then 50/50.

‘Our chances at the moment? I think we are probably going home,’ said Clarke.

‘If you ask me now, I don’t think it’s enough,’ added skipper Andy Robertson.

Nothing that happened the following day would have engendered a greater sense of optimism.

South Africa beating South Korea. Ecuador stunning Germany. Sweden getting a point against Japan. Paraguay and Australia playing out a goalless draw which suited them both. Each result edging Scotland closer towards the exit door. Faint hope draining away with each full-time whistle.

After all the joy of the previous fortnight, it was a thoroughly miserable day. You almost began to long that it was over. Part of you envied the likes of Haiti and Turkey. 

There was nothing messy about their eliminations, no reason for their fans to stick around and see how it unfolded.

Steve Clarke hoped to be the first man to guide the national team to the World Cup knockouts

As much as part of you still yearned for a freakish sequence of results to take Clarke’s men to the knockout round for the first time, what would be the point in it all?

The manager and the skipper clearly believed it was all but over. How on earth would they raise themselves for Germany or Mexico next week if the miracle did happen?

The team flight back up from Miami to Charlotte on Thursday afternoon would have been quiet. The mood wouldn’t have been helped by the fact that the majority of the players’ families went home.

Those who’d been toyed with by Brazil the previous evening would not have been human if they hadn’t said their farewells with a trace of envy. It’s been a long four weeks in a foreign land.

Their unusual predicament would have been viewed sympathetically by the veterans of the side who played at Italia ‘90.

Having lost to Costa Rica and beaten Sweden, Andy Roxburgh’s men went down to a late goal to Brazil on a wet night in Turin.

That also ensured they were down but not quite out. With four of the third-placed teams from the six groups going through that year, there was a vague possibility that the two points Scotland had taken from the Swedes might just be enough.

‘We will just have to wait and see what happens next,’ said Roxburgh at time-up. ‘We felt we had to get a point from the game to qualify. We didn’t get it. I suppose it is still mathematically possible, but our fate is now outwith our control.’

It was to be the hope that killed them. The following day, our old foes Uruguay beat South Korea 1-0 through an injury-time goal by Daniel Fonseca to move on to three points and push Roxburgh’s men down a place in the third-place chart.

It all came down to the Netherlands’ clash with Ireland 24 hours later. With the Dutch leading by Ruud Gullit’s goal, Scotland had a chance of sneaking through — although it may have come down to drawing of lots with Austria.

Scotland’s shock defeat to Costa Rica in their opening fixture at Italia 90 proved to be fatal

But an error by Hans van Breukelen allowed Niall Quinn to equalise. That saw Jack Charlton’s men finish second in their group with the Dutch also going through as one of the best third-placed teams.

One minute, Roxburgh’s men were gathered around a television dreaming of an epic clash in the next round. The next they were packing their bags.

‘So near yet so far. The old Scottish story,’ recalled full-back Maurice Malpas.

‘We weren’t quite out on the night. We’d to wait on other results going our way, but they didn’t.

‘It was a case of packing our bags and heading home the next day.’

Alan ‘Fingers’ Ferguson, the national team’s marketing consultant at the time, recalled the tetchy atmosphere in the squad as the players watched the remaining games unfold.

‘So, that wasn’t the happiest of camps,’ he said. ‘And the thing was that, had certain results gone our way, we were going to Rome to play Italy.

‘Someone (Uruguay) scored in the 91st minute in another game to (effectively) knock Scotland out. And while I’m not saying there was a cheer when the goal went in exactly, the team had been there for 23 days. That was enough.’

It certainly felt that way in Charlotte yesterday. The city in North Carolina has been the perfect base for Clarke and his players since they first moved across here from New Jersey.

Spotlessly clean, safe, friendly and with plenty for them and their families to do, the climate has been perfect.

But it rained hard in the morning, a biblical downpour that would have drenched the players as they went through the motions of training for a game which felt destined never to happen.

The World Cup is where it’s at. Football purgatory really is no place to be.