Steve Clarke believes Scotland are "going home" after a damaging 3-0 defeat to Brazil in their final Group C game of the 2026 World Cup.
The Tartan Army were assured of third place heading into the game with Haiti already knocked out, but suffered a huge blow to their goal difference thanks to goals from Vinicius Junior (2) and Matheus Cunha.
The top eight third-place teams will qualify for the knockout rounds and, with many points tallies likely to be similar, goal difference will be crucial.
After the game in Miami, Scotland sit sixth in those standings with a minus-three goal difference - although there is still lots of football to be played.
Clarke's initial interview with BBC Sport was cut short after he walked off in anger at the performance. "We made it difficult for ourselves. That's it," he said. "We gave them the goals and gave them the game they wanted. Disappointed."
However, he spoke to the broadcaster again later and admitted: "I think we're going home."
The Scotland boss added: "We created some chances, but didn't take them. Let's be honest, the best team won.
"The shift that the players put in, the ones that played 90 minutes in that heat, that humidity, were outstanding. But we have to be better. If we want to compete at this level, we have to be better.
"In the first five minutes, we're moving the ball quite nicely on the pitch. I thought we were settling into the game alright, and then we make a mistake like that [for Vinicius Junior's opener]. You cannot do that at this level, because it puts you on the back foot, and then it becomes a long night.
"Only Scotland can get a winnable first game, and then get number five in the world, and number six in the world with the next two games. That's the level we're at."
Andy Robertson also struck a downbeat tone as Scotland now face an agonising wait for the final group games to be played.
He told BBC Sport: "Time will tell. We need to take a day or two to see what has happened. As a collective, we didn't want to put ourselves in a position to hope for favours. If you ask me now, I don't think it is enough. The next couple of days will be horrible.
"In certain moments, we let ourselves down tonight. At times, we were comfortable on the ball and got ourselves into dangerous areas. But against these teams, we cannot afford to make the mistakes we were making.
"We were punished for pretty much every mistake. It's not good enough when you get beaten 3-0. We only have ourselves to blame."
Robertson's sentiments were echoed by John McGinn, who said Scotland's players fear they are heading home.
He said: "It's the way I feel now. It's not the way you want to go out either. We'll probably hurt tonight, hurt tomorrow and then just keep our fingers crossed.
"If we go into the last 32, if we get a miracle, we'll need to be better, we know that.
"If you don't take care of the ball in the big moments and you make mistakes, you get punished - that's club or international football."
He continued: "Brazil punished us tonight. I don't think overall they opened us up too many times, it was sort of self-inflicted mistakes and I think the scoreline was a fair one.
"It leaves us in the worst possible position from this morning. We gave ourselves a good platform to go and qualify and tonight we've made that very difficult. There's no hiding from that.
"We need a lot to go our way, we will hope, but what we do need to be if we manage to get through is be a lot better."
Midfielder Kenny McLean said losing the early goal after a confident start had put "anxiousness" throughout the squad and said: "Unfortunately we can't control (our destiny) now.
"We wanted things in our control, our games are done now so it's a waiting game.
"We're going to be hoping results go our way, it's not what you want to do."
Former Scotland international Kris Boyd on Your Site News:
"Over the three recent tournaments we have been at there is no doubt this Scotland group have come on leaps and bounds.
"They have deserved to qualify but the reality is that once we get here it has to improve. If it doesn't, this will continue at major tournaments. It is fantastic to get here but you don't want to just be here to make up the numbers.
"You want to put in a performance but we've failed to do that.
"It's now going to be a nervous wait to see if we can scrape through to the last 32, but it's looking very difficult.
"The most annoying thing from Steve Clarke's point of view is that he knows he's got good players in that squad, but a lot of them have failed to turn up. For whatever reason, we haven't been able to see out the big moments at this World Cup.
"It's been the same at the last couple of Euros.
"Steve Clarke came in for a lot of criticism off the back of those tournaments and you'd imagine there will be people saying the exact same here. But it is difficult. There is no doubt about it that it is difficult to come and perform at this level, especially against the players Brazil have got."
