Haiti suffer blow ahead of facing Scotland at World Cup as Steve Clarke urges caution
South Americans strike late to put Haitians to sword
Haiti conceded two goals in the last ten minutes against Peru as they lost their final World Cup warm-up match before facing Scotland next weekend.
Sebastian Migne’s men took an early lead against the Peruvians in Miami when Sunderland striker Wilson Isidor fired them into a 16th-minute lead. However, the South Americans battled back and levelled on 81 minutes through Renzo Garces before Jairo Velez smashed home the winner three minutes later.
In front of a noisy Nu Stadium in Florida on Friday night, Haiti named a strong starting XI that included their two English Premier League players in striker Isidor and midfielder Jean-Ricner Bellegarde. They played a 4-4-2 and started the match strongly, taking the lead when winger Louicius Deedson latched on to a slack Peruvian pass in midfield, drove forward and then sent Isidor in to deftly chip over keeper Pedro Gallese.
Haiti made a raft of substitutions in the second half as they conserved their star players for their Group C opener against Scotland and Peru found a way back. Garces reacted quickest to fire home a loose ball and then Velez drilled home an unstoppable shot following a well-worked corner kick.
Haiti defeated New Zealand 4-0 earlier in the week and will now prepare to face Scotland in Foxborough in the early hours of Sunday morning. They also face Brazil and Morocco in the group stages.
Speaking before Haiti’s defeat by Peru, Scotland head coach Steve Clarke said their win over New Zealand was a warning to Scotland that he had long since heeded.
“They were really good the other night,” said Clarke. “We’ve got a terrible habit, not just in Scotland, but in the UK in general, of looking at these nations and thinking they’re not very good, or (looking at) whatever their ranking in the world, But they play in a different section of the world, so maybe in their section, they’re really good.”
He continued: “And if you watched them play the other night against New Zealand, they were much better than New Zealand. Big, strong physical, but not only big, strong physical… also technical. They have good players who play in good leagues.
“I was never under any illusion, it was going be a tough game, and it’s probably nice that some people get to see how they played the other night, because it’s going be a difficult game for us.”
Scotland face Bolivia in New Jersey on Saturday (9pm BST) - their final warm-up match before taking on Haiti.
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