CAROLINE WEIR was Scotland's hero last night but suffered heartbreak as they exited the European Championships despite beating Spain.

The Dunfermline-born midfielder scored a dream goal four minutes before half-time to give them the lead in their final match in Group D.

After defeats to England and Portugal, the Scots had to win by two goals and hope that the Auld Enemy did them a favour by seeing off the Portuguese to continue their adventure in the Netherlands.

Weir's sixth international goal had them halfway towards completing a sensational achievement while England were on their way to a 2-1 win.

But it was not to be as Scotland couldn't find another goal and followed the men's World Cup sides of 1974, 1978 and 1982 in going out on goal difference.

The slick Spaniards posed 22-year-old Weir and her team-mates problems throughout the 90 minutes in Deventer, with goalkeeper Gemma Fay pulling off some important stops, but she was lucky to avoid a red card for handling outside the box.

Then, minutes later, 22-year-old Pars fan Caroline scored one of the most memorable goals of her career so far.

Leanne Crichton's ball over the top was chased by Erin Cuthbert, whose presence saw goalkeeper Sandra Panos fail to deal with it at the edge of the box.

The loose ball fell to Weir, who had the composure and strength to move away from Panos as she desperately tried to recover, before firing into the net despite the best attempts of a Spanish defender to block on the line.

It gave Scotland renewed belief and, at the beginning of the second half, Weir was close to setting up the goal that would've taken them through.

Her corner was met by Crichton at close range, but she fired over when she should have hit the target.

Spain, ranked 13th in the world, came back at the Scots and Silvia Meseguer smashed the bar before Fay was called into action to produce more heroics.

Despite their best efforts Scotland couldn't find a second and, while they claimed a famous scalp, their heartbroken players were left to contemplate elimination from their first major tournament finals.

After the match Weir, voted player of the game, told the Scottish Football Association: "We're gutted to be out the tournament. It was such a good performance from the girls and we couldn't have given anything more. We're devastated but we do go out with our heads held high by beating a very good Spanish side.

"You couldn't really pick out one player tonight; I think we all gave it everything, left it all on the pitch and you couldn't ask for more. We've gone out on a high, especially for Anna's (Signeul, coach) last game in charge, and I don't think she could've asked for a better performance.

"Overall I think we'll look back at this as a pretty positive experience. I think it was always going to be hard in our first tournament; we've had injuries and things like that, but I think the squad's done so well to try and look past that and enjoy every moment, and I think we've tried to do that.

"The first two results of course didn't go our way but we bounced back tonight and showed what we're all about."