Wales 1 Croatia 2: This was the match Wales had to win to keep the road to Rio at least partially open. Until 13 minutes from the close Chris Coleman's side maintained these hopes in a valiant effort all could be proud of.
But Dejan Lovren's long-range effort presaged Eduardo's 87th-minute winner to ensure Croatia departed victorious, leaving Wales 10 points behind them and Belgium, with only four qualifying matches remaining .
The contest did not take long to be graced by a typical Gareth Bale burst. He had warmed up by dropping deep into his own half to feed Joe Ledley on the turn to move play upfield towards Stipe Pletikosa's goal.
Moments later Bale collected and this time he worried Croatia. The Tottenham Hotspur man, playing off Craig Bellamy in a wandering brief, surged across the Liberty Stadium turf switching from near the centre circle to the visitor's area in a blink.
A panicked Vedran Corluka stuck out an agricultural boot to scythe Bale down. After the defender went in Luca Banti's book, the Wales No11 sent his effort too high from close to 30 yards out.
But by 21 minutes Bale had a 12th goal in his last 13 appearances for club and country. Wales's pace concerned Croatia throughout the half, primarily via Bale and Craig Bellamy.
Yet it was a run from Ledley in the opposition area that drew Dejan Lovren into fouling the midfielder. He joined Corluka in being shown a yellow card, before Bale stepped up to stroke the penalty home. If Pletikosa had remained stationary he would have saved the spot-kick with ease. But the goalkeeper dived to his right and Bale's finish went down the centre of his goal.
Chris Coleman, the Wales manager, had been without Arsenal's Aaron Ramsey through suspension due to his red card in Friday's 2-1 win over Scotland, and he was also unable to choose from Joe Allen, Dave Edwards, David Vaughan and Andy Croft because of injuries.
Yet as the sides headed towards the break Coleman would have been delighted with the performance of the XI he could call on.
The pre-match chat had billed this as a Bale versus Luka Modric showdown . While Bale - as has become routine - did prove the prime factor in his side's excellent showing, Modric was disappointing, failing to pull enough strings to be an influence.
Croatia's best move of the half did not involve the Real Madrid man. Instead, Mario Mandzukic flipped a neat "blind" pass to Eduardo and the striker's layoff to Sammir was deflected for a corner to Welsh relief.
Bale had been bright and influential, but walking off at the interval he might have been ruing the two chances that were not converted, with the second of these especially glaring.
The first came when Bale blazed the ball at Pletikosa from 20 yards and the keeper saved sharply to his left.
Moments later Bale found himself clear with only the same man to beat. But, usually lethal from 10 yards, he scooped the ball horribly over to leave the home support gasping in despair.
Coleman wrote in his programme notes: "I know this campaign has not gone according to plan. However, I believe that the current crop of players, when all are fit and available, have the ability to make it to a major finals.
"With the expansion of the European Championship finals to 24 nations in 2016 in France, qualifying then has to be a realistic prospect."
As his side emerged for the second period they were 45 minutes away from making the remainder of these World Cup qualifiers interesting.
Croatia, perhaps fuelled by a rocket from their coach, Igor Stimac, came at Wales hard from the start of the second half. An Ivan Rakitic corner bobbled across Boaz Myhill's eyeline before being cleared.
Darijo Srna's bouncing shot was stopped superbly by the keeper and Modric swept the ball through the Wales area but no team-mate could finish.
Now, disaster struck for Wales. Lovren, from a distance that Myhill should have had covered, unleashed a ferocious shot that beat the goalkeeper with an element of curl. The Dragons began to fade before Eduardo's close-range finish killed them off with only minutes left. Guardian Service