France come back from goal down to beat Scotland 4-1 in Lille friendly

Scotland have suffered a heavy defeat in Lille despite going a goal up against France in Tuesday night’s friendly.

The home side fought from won 4-1 after a double from Benjamin Pavard and a goal each from Kylian Mbappe and Kingsley Coman cancelled out Billy Gilmour’s early opener.

The game was the national team’s first outing since their place at Euro 2024 was secured by Spain’s win over Norway in Oslo on Sunday.

It is Steve Clarke’s side’s third loss in a row after defeats in their last two games in the 150th anniversary match against England and last week’s qualifier in Sevilla.

The defeats come after five consecutive victories that all but guaranteed them a place in Germany next summer.

Clarke rang the changes and brought in a string of fringe players including Liam Kelly, Kenny McLean, Greg Taylor and Lewis Ferguson.

France however brought out all their big hitters for the game with manager Didier Deschamps starting with captain Mbappe and record scorer Olivier Giroud leading the line.

But despite it looking like a bit of a mismatch on paper, Billy Gilmour put Scotland 1-0 up after 11 minutes with a tidy finish for his first ever goal in professional football.

The Brighton midfielder pounced on a loose ball in the box and finished like a seasoned striker past goalkeeper Mike Maignan.

The Tartan Army’s joy was short-lived however and Pavard equalised five minutes later with a header from a corner.

The Inter Milan defender then put Les Bleus in front with his second of the game after PSG superstar Mbappe showed his class to turn Jack Hendry inside out before putting it on a plate for Pavard to make it 2-1.

And it was 3-1 before half-time when the referee was called over to the VAR monitor and gave the home side a penalty after Liam Cooper pulled Giroud to the ground.

And Mbappe, who scored a hat-trick in last year’s World Cup final defeat to Argentina, put the spot kick past Kelly who was making his international debut between the sticks.

Bayern Munich forward had only been on the park for a couple of minute when he struck to make it 4-1 with 20 minutes to go with a goal that came directly after Scotland’s best spell of possession in the second half.

Luton Town forward Jacob Brown looked lively when he was introduced to the action in the place of Che Adams and came to close to getting one back for Scotland but it wasn’t to be.