TORONTO, June 23 (Reuters) - Croatia must handle pressure better and sharpen their focus if they hope to make a deep run at the World Cup, coach Zlatko Dalic said after his team laboured to a 1-0 win over Panama on Tuesday.
Panama showcased impressive speed and organisation and nearly opened the scoring when Jose Luis Rodriguez smacked a header toward the net only to see it touched onto the crossbar by the Croatia goalkeeper right before the hydration break.
So frustrated by his team's efforts, an animated Dalic spent the break trying to get his players back on track.
"They were really under a lot of pressure and each and every ball was in the possession of the opponent and many other balls as well that really destroyed us," Dalic said after his team eliminated Panama fromGroup L contention.
"And we didn't manage to overcome this initially, and this is why I was a little bit angry, and I reacted to this."
After having slipped to defeat by England in their curtain-raiser, Croatia came into this match well aware that a loss would deny them any chance of making the knockout round of the expanded 48-team tournament.
Despite all that was at stake, Croatia, who reached the final in 2018,made a slow start against a powerful Panama side before their pedigree ultimately surfaced after the break of the high-stakes Group L encounter.
"I didn't expect that it was going to be such a difficult match, to be quite honest," said Dalic."We didn't react the best, and perhaps it could be due to the pressure, because we really needed to get these three points to move on to the second stage."
Dalic, said his team's performance needs to be better in all segments, especially defence,for their match against Ghana on Saturday in Philadelphia.
"I am not the happiest to be with the play, to be honest, especially, especially in the first half," said Dalic. "But I will forget this, and now focus on what awaits us."
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in TorontoEditing by Christian Radnedge)
