The Group C sides face one another on Friday (19.06.26) and after Morocco impressed with a 1-1 draw against Brazil, the coach has warned his players that the African side are the "real deal" and one of the favourites to win the World Cup.
He said: "We are under no illusion about the size of the task.
"I feel Morocco are a really, really good side. They reached the last four of the last World Cup and I have a feeling this Morocco team is slightly better than that, so that gives you an idea of the task ahead.
"They have power, they have pace, they have little bits of skill that can open up a game. For me they are the real deal, a top side. We will have to be at our very best to compete.
“It is a big challenge for us. We give them a lot of respect. We expect they will probably have more of the ball, more possession. We have to make sure that when we have the ball we can be a threat to Morocco.”
But the coach thinks being the game's "underdogs" will work in Scotland's favour.
He said: "Sometimes the Scottish psyche and mentality is that we are a little more comfortable when we are the underdog. We were the favourites against Haiti and found the game a struggle, but we managed to win. This time we are the underdogs and sometimes Scotland prefer it that way.”
It is unlikely that Scotland will use the same 4-4-2 formation they had in their opening game against Haiti.
Steve said: “Every system that we have ever played, we have put a lot of work into. I have shown over my time as head coach that we can play different systems. It is something that we have always wanted to expand on, more systems, different personnel for different games."
A point should be enough to take Scotland through to the knockout stages for the first tme ever, and the squad are delighted.
Steve said: “The players feel good about themselves. They wanted to win a game at a major tournament and have done that. Now they want the next step, which is to get what we need out of the next two games to make a little bit of history for Scotland. The training was electric today. We feel good.”
