{"id":368245,"date":"2026-03-31T21:45:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T21:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/368245\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T21:45:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T21:45:07","slug":"ivory-coast-1-0-scotland-mar-31-2026-game-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/368245\/","title":{"rendered":"Ivory Coast 1-0 Scotland (Mar 31, 2026) Game Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"

A much-changed Scotland<\/a> suffered another friendly defeat with the 1-0 loss to Ivory Coast<\/a> offering manager Steve Clarke few solutions to their creativity problems as he prepares for the nation’s first World Cup since 1998.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The team were criticised for their flat performance in Saturday’s defeat to Japan<\/a> but pre-match midfielder John McGinn<\/a> stressed they could not afford to take the game to better opponents as they would be picked off.<\/p>\n

Which is exactly what happened in the 12th minute when, from a four-on-five Ivory Coast counter-attack, former Arsenal<\/a> winger Nicolas P\u00e9p\u00e9<\/a> tapped in a shot which rebounded off a post.<\/p>\n

But with their World Cup campaign kicking off in 74 days with a match against minnows Haiti<\/a> which they need to capitalise on Clarke has to find a way of making the team more threatening.<\/p>\n

A solution seemed unlikely at Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium, watched by Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Kenny Dalglish and Toffees boss David Moyes, where Clarke made nine changes and switched to a back three.<\/p>\n

\"NicolasNicolas P\u00e9p\u00e9 celebrates his goal for the Ivory Coast against Scotland.<\/p>\n

Andrew Milligan\/PA Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Only captain Andy Robertson — winning his 92nd cap to put him only 10 behind the all-time appearance leader Dalglish — and Scott McTominay<\/a> kept their places.<\/p>\n

That understandably led to something of a disjointed first-half performance and after an initial burst of positivity the Scots had lost their way by the interval.<\/p>\n

Ryan Christie’s low half-volley from the edge of the area was pushed away by second-choice goalkeeper Alban Lafont<\/a> with the Bournemouth midfielder also shooting over after George Hirst<\/a>, who started promisingly, dispossessed Wilfried Sango on halfway.<\/p>\n

But when Christie and McTominay got in each other’s way trying to get on the end of a Robertson cross from Kieran Tierney’s through-ball Scotland were punished on the counter, having committed five players to the attack.<\/p>\n

Ivory Coast broke and when Elye Wahi’s angled shot rebounded off the far post P\u00e9p\u00e9 was left with a simple tap-in with beaten Rangers’ back-up goalkeeper Liam Kelly<\/a>, winning only his second cap, slow to react.<\/p>\n

Kelly was, however, more confident in allowing Wahi’s long-range, dipping strike to land on the roof of his net.<\/p>\n

Chasing the game is not Scotland’s strength but McTominay forced Lafont to concede a corner with a shot from distance after three team-mates had pressured Christ Inao Oula\u00ef<\/a> into losing possession.<\/p>\n

A dangerous cross from Robertson, who regularly combined well with Tierney down the left, was cut out by Ousmane Diomande<\/a> but it was a rare threatening moment.<\/p>\n

Christie began brightly but was largely ineffective, Hirst faded while strike partner Ch\u00e9 Adams<\/a> was untidy in possession, which placed a significant burden on McTominay to do something in the final third.<\/p>\n

Falkirk goalkeeper Scott Bain and Bologna<\/a> midfielder Lewis Ferguson<\/a> replaced Kelly and McTominay for the second half in which Scotland stepped up the pressure but still struggled to create clear-cut chances.<\/p>\n

Hirst twice fired over from the edge of the area but they remained vulnerable on the counter.<\/p>\n

Substitute Nathan Patterson’s well-timed tackle in the penalty area prevented Amad Diallo pulling the trigger after a break from a Scotland corner while Bain pulled off a good save to deny the Manchester United<\/a> winger, before Simon Adingra<\/a> hit the post in added-time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A much-changed Scotland suffered another friendly defeat with the 1-0 loss to Ivory Coast offering manager Steve Clarke…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-368245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}