Raging Real Madrid legend Luka Modric accused ref Orel Grinfeld of ‘killing’ them after his Croatia side went down to a last gasp defeat at Hampden.
Steve Clarke’s men grabbed a late winner through sub John McGinn to sicken the Balkan nation, who needed a point to secure a quarter final place.
Croatian captain Modric was furious with Israeli ref Grinfeld after he showed a second yellow card to Petr Sucic just before the break, although the 39-year-old escaped a booking which would have ruled him out of playing against Portugal this week.
But he was incandescent about the display of the official.
He said: “It’s hard to analyse a game when the referee kills it for you.
“We were absolutely the better team in the first half, we deserved to lead by one or two goals, but then the referee ruined the game.
“I think we fought like lions, but we didn’t manage to hold on until the end.
“We even had a chance to win it through Mario Pasalic.
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“The ref was arrogant, he would only talk to me but not the rest of the players.
“Petr Sucic made two fouls and was shown two yellow cards.
“We received four yellow cards out of six or seven fouls.
“Someone needs to explain to him that not every foul is a yellow card.
“To destroy a match like this, which was not rough, but very calm, without bad fouls or anything like that…that’s really incredible to me.”
But Modric has vowed to seal second place in the group by beating section winners Portugal on Tuesday.
He said: “We didn’t deserve to lose the match to Scotland, but we did and we have to concentrate on the next game now.
“We are playing at home, in front of our own fans, the stadium will be full and I hope we will play the right game and achieve a positive result.”
