Match summary
There were plenty of positives for Scotland to take from this tie despite a poorly conceded goal as Marco Urena took advantage of some sloppy defending to seal a narrow win.
Full report
Costa Rica started brightly as they forced Scotland to chase the ball in the opening exchanges.
Scott McKenna got up well to clear the visitor's first corner of the game ahead of another clearing header from another swift attack from Oscar Ramirez's side.
Cristian Gamboa was causing Scotland problems with his balls from wide areas, who were struggling for what seemed an age to get out of their half. And Costa Rica were soon the lead, with just 14 minutes on the clock.
Urena, with the first shot of the tie, found the back of the net with a first-time effort after some good link up play from Daniel Colindres and Bryan Oviedo.
Scotland almost scored an instant response but Callum Paterson headed Matt Ritchie's 17th minute corner just wide.
McKenna should have headed the hosts ahead from a Charles Mulgrew set-piece, but he failed to even connect to the ball, ahead of the first real save from Keilor Navas from a curled effort from Oliver McBurnie midway through the half.
McBurnie twice had good opportunities for an equaliser but both chances were blocked, before Urena nodded wide under pressure from Scott McTominay.
Scotland looked threatening from a few set-pieces at the start of the second period ahead of a cracking shot against the crossbar at the other end from Ruiz.
Having weathered the Costa Rica storm in the first 45 minutes, Alex McLeish's side were growing with confidence, although a number of substitutions from both sides disrupted the flow of the match somewhat.
Navas was forced to turn a Ritchie shot over his goal before McBurnie saw is his chance disappear after losing out to some good defending from Oscar Duarte.
Both Ritchie and Andy Robertson looked to effect the outcome of this tie with a number of balls swung into the box, before Robertson got on the end of a Paterson delivery but headed wide of goal for the last chance of this entertaining encounter.
