Kieran Tierney admits Croatia were just too good at Hampden last night as he revealed Luka Modric's stunning strike knocked the stuffing out of Scotland's hopes of pulling off an historic victory.
Only a win would do to take Scotland into the knockout stages of a major tournament.
And even although Callum McGregor's strike just before half-time offered a lifeline to cancel out Nikola Vlasic's opener, Modric inspired the 2018 World Cup finalists to qualification themselves with a composed, outside of the boot finish into the top corner before a Ivan Perisic header sealed Scotland's fate in a 3-1 defeat.
In his post-match press conference, Muirhouse man Tierney said: "The Modric goal knocked the stuffing out of us because we knew we were going to have to score two.
"We knew the way the game was going it was going to be hard because they were unbelievable.
"Modric...I think his performance was incredible and as a team Croatia were magnificent.
"It was just tough to play against.
"Callum's goal gave us every chance. It was a tough first half but it was the perfect time to score and give us more confidence going into the second half. It never turned out to be our night.
"We knew once it was 2-1 it was going to be tough, but we never gave up, that's for sure.
"We never gave up trying. Our effort was always there, no matter the score-line, no matter the minute.
"But we can hold our heads up high with the effort and the commitment.
"We played against three amazing teams who have been in tournament football a lot more than us and have a lot more experience of games like tonight's. I think that showed."
The Tartan Army among the 12,500 fans inside Hampden made themselves heard, as they tried to will Steve Clarke's side to glory, but classy Croatia proved too strong.
With the 23-year wait for an appearance at a major tournament now at an end, the Arsenal defender hopes this squad will be back for more as focus will now turn to qualifying for next year's World Cup in Qatar.
The 24-year-old added: "'The support has been fantastic, we're all very grateful for that.
"We did our best to make the fans proud. But it wasn't to be.
"Is this the start of something rather than the end? That's the aim. That's what the manager said and that's the message he wanted to get across - that it's not the end for this group of boys and this squad.
"It's just the beginning of us qualifying for tournaments more and more and giving the fans more to celebrate and cheer for and I'm sure the boys will give absolutely everything to make the fans and the manager proud in the future.
"We will learn, for sure. Tonight was a big learning curve for us all.
"Croatia had been there before, plenty of times, and with the quality they've got it showed tonight and we just have to learn from stuff like that because the way they played made it hard for us to get going."
In Group D England went through as section winners with a 1-0 win over Czech Republic, who ended up slipping to third spot on goal difference behind Croatia.
All three sides qualified for the last 16, while Scotland - with just one point and one goal to their name - crashed out.
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