Clarke relishing ‘fantastic problems’ of team selection after Scotland’s big win

Steve Clarke says Scotland have given him “fantastic problems” ahead of selecting a starting line-up for their World Cup opener following a 4-0 rout of Bolivia.

Scotland, who also beat Curacao 4-1 in their previous warm-up friendly, ran riot in the first half against their South American opposition to go into the tournament on a high.

Lawrence Shankland and Scott McTominay got the scoring underway before Che Adams netted a brace to secure the win.

This was the first time Scotland have netted four first-half goals in an international match since March 2015 against Gibraltar.

The Tartan Army also ended their six-match winless run against South American opposition (D1 L5), since beating Ecuador 2-1 in May 1995, which will serve them well with Brazil one of their opponents in the group stage.

Clarke rung in the changes during the second half, with the result already decided, and with Scotland embarking on their first World Cup campaign since 1998 next week, he is glad to have a selection headache.

“Fantastic, fantastic problems,” Clarke said.

“Really good first half, then I turn round to my bench, and the changes are good.

“When we made the changes, you lose a little bit of the rhythm of the game when you make so many changes, both sides, but the boys go in. Their priority, really, was not to concede because we wanted a clean sheet.

“It’s been a little while since we had a clean sheet, so it was nice to get that. I spoke before that there are no injuries, good performance, and we got the result.

“It’s not often they give me everything I asked for, so pleased with that.”

FULL TIME: Bolivia 0-4 Scotland.

A big win and a clean sheet in our final @FIFAWorldCup warm-up match.#BOLSCO | #FIFAWorldCup pic.twitter.com/BcLtfl3iFQ

— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) June 6, 2026

Scotland had 20 shots against Bolivia, racking up 3.1 expected goals (xG) in the process, and have scored four goals in back-to-back games.

Given their World Cup group also contains Morocco and Haiti, whom they face in their opener, Clarke acknowledged how important it is to feel confident in front of goal heading into the tournament, where they will be aiming to reach the knockout stages for the first time.

“Obviously, we get told that we don’t score enough goals, but that’s back-to-back fours, so if we can continue in that vein…” he added.

“It’s about the creation of the chances, and the creation of chances was good. If you create good chances, then we’ve got players on the pitch who can score goals.”