Ivory Coast 1 Scotland 0 - Nicolas Pepe goal inflicts another friendly defeat on Steve Clarke's side

A much-changed Scotland suffered another friendly defeat with the 1-0 loss to Ivory Coast offering manager Steve Clarke few solutions to their creativity problems as he prepares for the nation’s first World Cup since 1998. This was the Scots’ eighth reverse in the last 11 non-competitive matches and after conceding an early goal they struggled to really test opponents who did not concede a goal or lose a game in qualifying for this summer’s tournament. The team were criticised for their flat performance in Saturday’s defeat to Japan but pre-match midfielder John McGinn stressed they could not afford to take the game to better opponents as they would be picked off. Which is exactly what happened in the 12th minute when, from a four-on-five Ivory Coast counter-attack, former Arsenal winger Nicolas Pepe tapped in a shot which rebounded off a post. But with their World Cup campaign kicking off in 74 days with a match against minnows Haiti which they need to capitalise on Clarke has to find a way of making the team more threatening. Daily Record Homepage: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/ Daily Record Facebook: https://facebook.com/TheScottishDailyRecord Daily Record Instagram: https://instagram.com/scottishdailyrecord Daily Record Sport Instagram: https://instagram.com/dailyrecord_sport Daily Record TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@scottishdailyrecord Daily Record Sport TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dailyrecord_sport Daily Record Twitter: https://twitter.com/Daily_Record Daily Record Newsletters: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/newsletter-preference-centre/ Join our WhatsApp communities here and get the latest news sent straight to your messages: DAILY RECORD: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/join-daily-records-whatsapp-community-31116469 RECORD SPORT RANGERS: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/join-record-sports-new-rangers-31111892 RECORD SPORT CELTIC: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/join-record-sports-new-celtic-31111589 You can get all the latest news, sport, showbiz and comment at DailyRecord.co.uk LIKE | COMMENT | SUBSCRIBE | SHARE #DailyRecord #scotland #ivorycoast #worldcup