You can always find some cruel symmetry in a Scotland exit.
There is invariably a parallel with what has gone before.
Let’s face it, when you’ve failed to get out of your group as often as the Scots, an old script is being tweaked rather than a completely fresh one written.
The echo from the past goes all the way back to when this whole tournament suffering thing began.
In the first of Scotland’s nine championship finals, a draw against Yugoslavia wasn’t enough to see Willie Ormond’s ground-breakers into the last-eight of the 1974 World Cup.
Now, 47 years to the very day of that 1-1 in Frankfurt, it was one of the nations who made up that country back then, Croatia, who have ensured more Scottish failure.
It would be a stretch to class this in the ‘glorious’ category but that doesn’t mean there was shame in this latest early exit either.
Scotland have played progressively better teams as they have gone along in Euro 2020.
The opener against the Czech Republic was the big opportunity lost, the draw with England a worthy one-off achievement and this defeat to Croatia a case of the far better team winning.
People have been writing off World Cup finalists of just three years ago too soon, it would appear.
A fast and furious Scottish start was what the occasion demanded and a fast and furious Scottish start was what it got.
It took all of 11 seconds for them to earn a corner.
That set-piece came to nothing – neither did a second that swiftly followed – but a marker had been put down.
The first near-miss came on six minutes when John McGinn floated a teasing cross to the back post that Che Adams was just half-a-yard from connecting with at the far post.
The Southampton striker, who perhaps should have gone at it with his head rather than the outside of his left boot, tried his luck with a long-range shot that drifted wide shortly after.
Stephen O’Donnell was rightly praised for his Wembley performance but he spurned a good opportunity to pick out either Adams or Lyndon Dykes with a cross that was hit straight at keeper Dominik Livakovik.
There was worse to come, though.
With pretty much Croatia’s first decent move of the match they scored.
A bread-and-butter Josip Juranovic diagonal ball was floated into the box from right to left where O’Donnell was caught flat-footed and beaten in the air by Ivan Perisic.
From the knock-down, Nikola Vlasic sent a low shot past David Marshall’s right hand into the bottom corner of the net.
Croatia open the scoring through Nikola Vlasic.
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— STV Sport (@STVSport) June 22, 2021
All in all, it was a cheap goal – from a lazy Andy Robertson press to O’Donnell’s lack of awareness and then Callum McGregor and Scott McTominay being slow to react to the second ball.
That encouraging start had evaporated and the task of winning this match was now an enormous one.
McGinn had a chance of getting a quick equaliser to make the job less daunting but the Aston Villa star, so often the talisman for Scotland, didn’t make a clean connection when a shooting opportunity presented itself just inside the Croatia box.
The Scots were having to do without Billy Gilmour, of course, and another Friday night hero in north London, Grant Hanley, went off injured just after the half-hour mark.
He was replaced by Scott McKenna, whose first contribution was bringing down Bruno Petkovic as he threatened to drive through the middle. It was a yellow card worth taking.
Just as Croatia were tightening their grip on possession, Scotland sculpted an equaliser out of nothing.
Well, from a Robertson cross that was poorly cleared to be precise.
The ball couldn’t have dropped more invitingly for McGregor. He took one touch and then with his second, sent a low 20-yarder beyond the dive of Livakovik.
Not a bad time to score your first goal for Scotland.
GOAL Callum McGregor drives home an equaliser in the 42nd minute.
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— STV Sport (@STVSport) June 22, 2021
Whatever else happened, at least the ‘only team not to score at the Euros’ statistic was put to bed.
It was game on but the general flow of the match needed to change and something resembling parity in midfield needed reached.
Gilmour’s poise was being sorely missed.
There was no sign of that momentum switch happening at the start of the second half, however.
Croatia were back in charge and only a heavy touch from Josko Gvardiol prevented him from restoring his team’s lead.
Marshall rushed off his line on that occasion and then made an even better save moments later to deny Perisic.
The Scots were feeding off scraps but they weren’t without hope and McGinn almost finished off a Stuart Armstrong cross at the back post.
It proved to be a fleeting diversion from the narrative.
Croatia go 2-1 up after a goal from Luka Modric.
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— STV Sport (@STVSport) June 22, 2021
On 62 minutes Croatia had the lead they deserved again.
The finish with the outside of his boot was a typically classy one from Luka Modric but Armstrong’s reluctance to close down his space was the sort of assistance you really shouldn’t be affording a Ballon d’Or winner.
It was time for Steve Clarke to gamble and his first attacking substitution was replacing Armstrong with Ryan Fraser.
Not that Fraser was able to make any impact at this stage in the contest. Not that any Scot was able to make an impact, in fact.
Croatia were in cruise control and that they scored a third came as no surprise.
Modric dropped a corner on to the head of Perisic whose short dart away from Kieran Tierney was enough to buy him the space to win his near post header and guide it in off the back post.
Ivan Perisic makes it 3-1 to Croatia.
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— STV Sport (@STVSport) June 22, 2021
That those two world class players should have the final word was fitting.
It turns out this ageing team, with their ageing stars, aren’t finished yet.
Scotland have a young, potentially exciting team which can qualify for more tournaments and even get beyond that thus far insurmountable group hurdle.
Attempting to emulate a great team like Croatia is another goal worth aspiring to.
Croatia 3 – 1 Scotland: Player ratings as Scotland’s Euro 2020 dream ends with Hampden heartbreak