Richarlison broke down in tears as he apologised to his family and Brazil’s fans following their shock exit from the World Cup.

A 4-2 penalty shootout defeat to Croatia in the quarter-finals sent what were many people’s favourites for the title home, leaving Tottenham striker Richarlison devastated.

“I want to apologise to my family, everyone who came here, to those back in Brazil supporting us,” he told reporters.

“Now it's time to go to my room and cry. It makes you want to enter a place and never show up again.

“I’m a player, but I’m a fan on the field. So this moment is difficult. Now it's time to go home. Unfortunately the trophy did not come. We created a very high expectation, but unfortunately we failed. There's not much to talk about.

“There are many who will not return. Dani [Alves], Thiago [Silva] probably. It’s hard to swallow a defeat like that. But we have a life ahead of us. It's crying now, but then raising your head.”

Richarlison was substituted during Friday’s match and departs Qatar with three goals to his name.

“It’s the biggest thing we have, the World Cup, it's where the biggest ones are,” he continued. “We had a squad to be champions, which hurts even more.

“Sometimes football is unfair to us, we gave our life on the field and unfortunately we conceded a goal at the end, and they were better on penalties.”