Zlatko Dalic claims Croatia must improve despite beating Panama at World Cup

[p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/panama/OWKqbCfi/"]Panama[/a] 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 [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/croatia/K8aznggo/"]Croatia[/a] goalkeeper ‌right before the hydration break.[/p][p]So frustrated by his team's efforts, an animated Dalic spent the break trying to get his players back ‌on track.[/p][p]"[b]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,[/b]" Dalic said after his team eliminated Panama from Group L ​contention.[/p][p]"[b]And we didn't manage to overcome this initially, and this is why I was a little bit angry, and ⁠I reacted to this[/b]."[/p][p]After ​having slipped to defeat by [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/england/j9N9ZNFA/"]England[/a] 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.[/p][embed guid="3fdbb48b-9fd7-441c-b8ec-87ee0fcf3b40" url="https://x.com/Flashscorecom/status/2069585183389466734?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p]Despite all that was at stake, Croatia, who reached the final in 2018, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/soccer/croatia-K8aznggo/panama-OWKqbCfi/?mid=CSkWyxM6"]made a slow start[/a] against a powerful Panama side before their pedigree ultimately surfaced after the break of the high-stakes Group L encounter.[/p][p]"[b]I didn't expect that it was going to be such a difficult match, to be quite honest,[/b]" said Dalic. "[b]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[/b]."[/p][p]Dalic, said his ‌team's performance needs to be better in all segments, especially defence, for their match against [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/ghana/nNBjHale/"]Ghana[/a] on Saturday in Philadelphia.[/p][p]"[b]I am not the happiest to be with the play, to be honest, especially, especially in the first half," ⁠[/b]said Dalic. [b]"But I will ⁠forget this, and now ‌focus on what awaits us.[/b]"[/p]