Canada eliminated from men's World Cup contention despite Alphonso Davies's historic goal

Canada wasted little time Sunday ending its scoring drought at the men's World Cup via Alphonso Davies but could not hold off Croatia, losing 4-1 to end its hopes of reaching the tournament's knockout round in Qatar.

Ranked 12th in the world and runner-up to France four years ago in Russia, Croatia is filled with talent from top clubs and its class showed in rallying from an early 1-0 deficit.

Two goals by Andrej Kramaric and one by Marko Livaja accounted for the Croatian comeback. Lovro Majer added a stoppage-time goal in the 94th minute on a two-on-none attack.

The 41st-ranked Canadians started with a bang with a Milan Borjan goal kick finding Cyle Larin at midfield. Larin controlled the ball deftly with his foot and sent it over to Tajon Buchanan down the right flank. Buchanan surged ahead, took two touches, lifted his head and sent in a cross that Davies, soaring through the air high above fullback Josip Juranovic, headed home past goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic.

The tac-tac-toe goal came just 67 seconds into the match. But it was actually 36 years in the making — a goal worthy of Canada's first at the men's soccer showcase. Davies's teammates mobbed the 22-year-old from Edmonton by the corner flag and the entire country celebrated.

WATCH | Davies scores historic goal:

Perhaps a little too soon.

It marked Davies's 13th goal for Canada, and the first with his head, in 36 appearances. And it no doubt helped make up for his missed penalty in the Canadians' opening 1-0 loss to No. 2 Belgium.

But Croatia regains its composure and, using its precision, took over the midfield and began to open up the Canadian defence, scoring twice to lead 2-1 at the break.

Davies was feeling it, nutmegging Inter Milan's Marcelo Brozovic in