The Albany Gazette - Scotland suffer more friendly woe against Ivory Coast

Steve Clarke's men were beaten by the same scoreline at home to Japan on Saturday and a lack of goals will be a concern for the Scotland boss ahead of a first World Cup for 28 years.

The decisive moment came after just 12 minutes when Scotland were caught out by a rapid Ivorian counter-attack that ended with Pepe reacting fastest to tap in after Elye Wahi's strike came back off the post.

Scott McTominay stung the palms of Alban Lafont as Scotland pushed for a route back into the game, but were again undone by the lack of cutting edge in the final third.

Ipswich's George Hirst came closest to a leveller after the break with a near post header that Lafont got behind.

Ivory Coast thrashed South Korea 4-0 at the weekend but were happy to defend their lead for most of the second period until a late flurry.

Manchester United's Amad Diallo only made a cameo as a second-half substitute but forced Scott Bain into a tremendous save low to his left before Simon Adingra's effort from the edge of the box came back off the post.

Emerse Fae's side, who reached the quarter-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations earlier this year, will face Germany, Curacao and Ecuador at the World Cup.

Scotland will take on Curacao in June in their final warm-up match before facing Haiti, Morocco and five-time winners Brazil in the United States in June.

(T.Wright--TAG)