Scotland battled its way to a 5-1 victory over Bulgaria on Thursday at Kobe Wing Stadium in the second match of the three-game Kirin Cup tourney.
A first-half brace by Rangers striker Kris Boyd, two second-half goals from Chris Burke and one in between from James McFadden gave the Scots an emphatic victory in a game that rarely seemed it would be that easy.
Scotland started the livelier of the two, but seemingly to little purpose until midfielder Gary Teale split the Bulgarian defense in the 13th minute with a clever through-ball, which Boyd latched on to and crashed home from close range.
But Bulgaria hit back with some urgency and in the 21st minute keeper Neil Alexander had to be quick off his line to thwart Svetoslav Todorov, and again saved well two minutes later from a curling free-kick by Bulgarian captain Martin Petrov from just outside the box.