Neymar said Saturday he was "psychologically destroyed" by Brazil's elimination from the World Cup in a penalty shootout defeat to Croatia and admitted it hurt more than any other loss in his career.

The 30-year-old scored a superb individual effort to equal Pele's record goalscoring haul of 77 goals for the Selecao in Friday's match that finished 1-1 after extra time.

But he never got to take a spot kick in the shootout that Croatia won 4-2 to move into the semi-finals.

Pre-tournament favourites Brazil must now wait at least another four years to win their sixth World Cup -- their last dates back to 2002. 

"I am psychologically destroyed. It is definitely the defeat which has hurt me the most, which left me paralysed for ten minutes after the match, after which I burst into tears without being able to stop," Neymar said in an Instagram message.

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