On the pitch, at least, Qatar’s World Cup had run its course.
Exit already confirmed by successive defeats, the tournament hosts suffered a third on the bounce on Tuesday. It rounded off a crushingly underwhelming campaign.
The Netherlands landed the final blow, the three-time runners-up too strong and too streetwise for the finals debutants, eventually triumphing 2-0 at Al Bayt Stadium.
Having for a third time this tournament made the 35-mile trek north of Doha to Al Khor, you’d excuse Qatar for not wanting to go back. Ecuador saw them off there on opening night, rendering Felix Sanchez’s side the first host nation to lose the curtain-raiser. Senegal overpowered them. Then the Dutch delivered the parting shot.
Goals from Cody Gakpo and Frenkie de Jong did the damage, but did not quite detail the dominance. Qatar, as has been too often the case, had no sustained response.
So the Asian champions depart without a solitary point, the first host team to lose three matches at a single World Cup. The Netherlands, who still had progression to secure with a win or draw, advance to the knockouts as Group A winners.
The "Total Football" proponents have not yet totally clicked, but they bound on unbeaten, seven points from a possible nine. Maybe they are just hitting their stride. After declaring his team are in with a shot of becoming champions, manager Louis Van Gaal says his players “have become convinced” of it, too.
Qatar, though, are hardly the yardstick. The Netherlands, with Memphis Depay deemed fit enough for a first start, were superior throughout, even if they had by half-time only Gakpo’s fine strike to show for it.
On 26 minutes, a slick move involving Depay allowed Gakpo and Davy Klaassen to trade a one-two, before the in-form PSV Eindhoven forward curled low into the Qatar net.
It marked Gakpo’s third goal is as many games, lifting him to exalted company. Only three Dutchmen have scored in three consecutive World Cup games: Johan Neeskens, in 1974, Dennis Bergkamp 20 years later, and Wesley Sneijder, during that last run to the final, in 2010. Not a bad list to join.
You would imagine Gakpo, linked heavily with Leeds United and the Premier League in the summer, will have a few more suitors this winter.
Shortly after half-time, De Jong doubled the lead. Qatar failed to clear, Depay’s shot was saved well at close range by goalkeeper Meeshal Barsham, and De Jong was on hand to poke home.
Probably sensing more, Sanchez sent on a succession of substitutes. He would be thankful that Steven Berghuis was denied a Netherlands third by Gakpo's handball in the build-up, and perhaps grateful of his opposite number also. For, as Van Gaal made use of his bench, his team lost their tempo. Maybe minds had turned already to the last 16.
Still, Berghuis seemed determined to stake his claim for a place in the first XI. In injury-time, he shaped a shot from distance on to the Qatar crossbar.
And that was that. The Netherlands move on from the group summit, belief presumably growing that they can go even further than the sides of 1974, 1978 and 2010. In 2014, their most recent World Cup, they finished third.
In contrast, Qatar can for now only look back. Their first global finals, their World Cup, concluded at the first juncture. It was devastatingly disappointing.
Granted, Mohammed Muntari sealed his place forever in the record books, grabbing his country’s opening World Cup goal in the loss to Senegal. But, as Sanchez had since said, this felt the end of a cycle. The initial project was done.
