Steve Clarke has charged his side to secure a first-ever win in Georgia and stop a losing run stretching to three games after a 4-1 loss to France rounded off a surreal international window.

Scotland were beaten by Spain on Thursday night, qualified for Euro 2024 without playing on Sunday and then lost heavily here in Lille to Didier Deschamps’ beaten World Cup finalists. The away fans were nevertheless in good voice and hailed the players afterwards with the main target from this latest set of fixtures having been achieved – reach next summer’s finals.

“We can take the memory of qualification but we lost two games in the camp,” said Clarke. “We don’t like losing. I don’t want them to be comfortable losing or happy losing, We spoke about that after the game, it is important we set our standards higher than that. We do not want to lose, we have lost three in a row now. I have asked them to make sure when we go to Georgia that we stop this run.”

Scotland travel to Tbilisi next month and then complete their successful Euro 2024 section with a home game against Norway. Clarke has challenged his players to match Spain’s likely final points tally, which he expects will be 21 points after two more wins. Both teams are currently on 15 points with Spain in front on goal difference.

Scotland manager Steven Clarke returns the ball to the field of play during the 4-1 defeat by France.

A much-changed Scotland side who had been celebrating qualification until the early hours of Monday morning were always on a hiding to nothing against a very strong France team. Although the visitors opened the scoring early on after Billy Gilmour’s first-ever senior goal, Kylian Mbappe took control. The skipper made one and scored one from the spot as France took a 3-1 lead at half-time, with centre half Benjamin Pavard scoring a brace of headers. Sub Kinglsey Coman scored a fourth in the second half.

Clarke was unhappy about the penalty award and stressed that Tobias Stieler should have stuck with his original decision not to give anything as Olivier Giroud tangled with Liam Cooper in a race to get to Mbappe’s cross. The referee was directed to the monitor by his VAR officials, however.

“I thought we started the game really well,” said Clarke. “The first 15 minutes was good. We got ourselves in front then to concede from a corner was disappointing because we know France can score from open play so you try not to give goals away from set plays.

"The first two involved set plays or the second phase from set plays," he added. "The third one, I have to say I don’t think VAR should have got involved in the penalty decision. It was soft and when the referee goes there, he has to be a little bit stronger to stick with his original decision. Both players were at it, which is normal in the box. It felt like a poor decision and that takes the game away from us a little bit.

“The second half was OK, we passed the ball well, but every time France go forward their pace, power and quality means they are always a threat. Lots to learn, lots for us to improve. We know we are not at that level yet. It is a level we strive to get to and the harder we strive to get there, the better team we will be.”

Steve Clarke tells Scotland to end losing run and questions France's VAR penalty