In the latest episode of ‘Fan Denial’, Paddy Power mocked Scottish fans as their national team’s Euro 2020 journey came to an end on Tuesday evening.

With the mood high prior to kick off, the bookmaker overlaid clips of the spirited celebrations of Scotland supporters to the dulcet tones of the bagpipes, in contrast to the scene just 16 minutes later when Nikola Vlašić opened the scoring for Croatia.

“So, it’s going to be one of those games,” one Scottish fan wrote on Twitter, whilst another expressed: “We never take the easy road.”

With three minutes until the half-time whistle, Callum McGregor gave Scotland – who needed to win the final Group D fixture to progress to the last-16 – hope as he cancelled out Vlašić’s opening goal.

“Scotland’s first tournament goal in the Nokia 3310 era,” one Scottish supporter said on social media, as famous faces Nicola Sturgeon and Lorraine Kelly took to Twitter to mark the moment.

Elsewhere, boos erupted from Wembley Stadium as the news reached England supporters that their fierce rivals might still be in with a chance of booking a place in the knockout rounds of the tournament.

However, that jubilee was short lived when Luka Modrić made it 2-1 to Croatia and dashed Scotland’s hopes once more.

“Scotland fans can’t even hit the target,” a dismayed fan posted on Twitter whilst another pointed: “ITV commentator: Looks like Scotland are in fact heading into isolation.”

As hope began to fade, Ivan Perišić put the game beyond all doubt at 3-1 and Scotland supporters attempted to make the best of a bad situation, as one fan wrote: “Had our fun, that’s all that matters.”

The Three Lions faithful basked in their 1-0 victory over the Czech Republic and mocked Scotland as one England fan wrote, “Hey, at least you won the ‘We drew at Wembley trophy’”, only for a Scotland supporter to respond, “Only team in the group that didn’t score against us”.

Another England fan said: “Scotland heading home from the Euros and they haven’t even left Britain to play a game in Europe!”

And Scottish stand-up comedian Kevin Bridges summed up Scotland’s hopes for the future: “Euro 2044 it is then with COVID restrictions starting to ease.”