"Hurts like hell" - Neymar speaks about his pain after World Cup elimination

Neymar has revealed that Brazil's World Cup elimination still 'hurts like hell' and admitted that he doesn't know how to lose.

On Friday evening, World Cup favourites Brazil were knocked out by Croatia, continuing their run of not winning the tournament since 2002.

Neymar looked to have sent his side through to the semi-finals, when he produced a moment of absolute magic, right at the end of the first half of extra time.

However, it wasn't enough to win the match for Tite's side, with penalty experts Croatia taking it to spot kicks when Bruno Petkovic equalised in the 117th minute, which might not have happened if his teammates had listened to Neymar.

Whilst it sent Croatia through to the final four for the second time in-a-row, it ended Brazil's hopes of ending their 20 year drought.

Neymar was highly criticised after failing to even take a penalty, because the Selecao didn't even make it to their fifth attempt, with Rodrygo and Marquinhos both missing.

At full time the PSG forward, who was famously stretchered out of the 2014 World Cup on home soil, was extremely emotional, breaking down in tears.

The former Barcelona star took to social media on Sunday evening to say that he was still hurting and explain that he's a bad loser.

"Back on Brazilian soil," he opened, after what was no doubt a tough journey home for him and all his teammates.

"Still hurting like hell from the loss, we were so close, so close.

"Unfortunately or fortunately I still haven't learned to lose. Defeats make me stronger but they hurt me like hell and I'm still not used to it.

"Anyway, we have to move on... life moves us on, even if it hurts and the hurt takes time to heal, we have to move on.

"Once again I want to thank the Brazilian people for their support and affection. Hearing from you that we fought, delivered until the end comforts a little of our pain.

"Thank you Qatar for everything. The tournament was beautiful and we wanted Brazil to win to crown it all, but by God's destiny it wasn't.

"We keep going... Now it's to turn off the key, take advantage of family and friends, recharge energies because dealing with this defeat will be very difficult, it still hurts me A LOT!"

It was a far more upbeat message from the 30-year-old than the one he posted 24 hours previous, when he said, "I'm psychologically destroyed.

"This was certainly the defeat that hurt me the most, which made me paralyzed for 10 minutes and right after I fell into non-stop crying."

Clearly his dream has been to win the World Cup and this was as sad an ending as he had in 2014, for different reasons, whilst they also lost to Belgium four years ago in Russia.

The PSG star will be 34 by the time the next tournament comes along, in USA, Mexico and Canada, but he wasn't so sure whether he'd be there or not.

"Honestly, I do not know. I think talking now is bad because of the heat of the moment. Maybe I'm not thinking straight," Neymar said immediately after the loss.

To say that this is the end would be rushing myself, but I don't guarantee anything either. Let's see what happens going forward.

"I want to take this time to think about it, think about what I want for myself. I will not close the door to playing with Brazil, nor do I say 100 per cent that I'll come back."