Scotland taught our young players lesson - Bolivia boss

Sun, June 7, 2026 at 9:07 AM UTC

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Scotland taught our young players lesson - Bolivia boss

Bolivia head coach Oscar Villegas says Scotland taught his young team a lesson in their 4-0 friendly defeat in New Jersey.

Steve Clarke's side were four goals to the good by half-time in their final World Cup warm-up game against a side who missed out on the finals after losing a play-off against Iraq.

"We need to improve our defensive transitions, because we faced an opponent who didn't hesitate going forward when they had the ball, was very forceful, very direct and was able to hurt us - and we couldn't find a way around in the first half," former San Jose midfielder Villegas said.

"And that's a bit of a lesson we learned in the second half: we controlled those details a little better and, as a result, we protected our goal better and also created some chances.

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"But we're talking about a team that's going to play in the World Cup, that's in great form, that's physically very powerful, very strong. And that obviously teaches us something, because we, as you know, we are preparing for the next World Cup."

Bolivia finished seventh in South America's World Cup qualifying league and are ranked 77th in the world - 35 places below Scotland - but Villegas thinks his introduction of younger players will pay off in the long run.

"I would say it's a team that has been evolving these last two years," he added. "With young players, we reached the play-offs, so I think that's the way forward.

"What has allowed us to get so close to the World Cup is the young players. We have taken that risk. Having finished close to the World Cup, this next qualifying round, we are going to arrive much stronger than the previous one."

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Source: “AOL Sports”