Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic admitted his side can no longer afford mistakes at the World Cup after suffering a 4-2 defeat to England in their Group L opener on Wednesday.
The 2018 finalists twice fought back to level the match at 2-2 before England pulled away in the second half to claim all three points, leaving Croatia under pressure heading into their remaining group matches against Panama and Ghana.
“It’s not easy to lose,” Dalic told reporters after the match.
“You lose your self-confidence, and that’s not good. We have to prepare well for the next two games because we no longer have room for mistakes.
“I wouldn’t say this was a bad performance, but we made errors and England punished us. We must be at the right level in the next matches.”
Dalic was particularly frustrated with Croatia’s defending from set pieces, which led directly to two of England’s goals.
“We used to be very strong in these situations. We prepared for England and knew how dangerous they are from set pieces,” he said.
“It was disastrous. Around 40 per cent of England’s goals come from set pieces, and we still allowed them to hurt us. We have to correct that immediately and make sure it does not happen again.”
Despite the defeat, Dalic took encouragement from the way his side responded in the first half. Goals from Petar Musa and Martin Baturina cancelled out Harry Kane’s two strikes and sent Croatia into the break level at 2-2.
However, Jude Bellingham’s goal shortly after halftime proved a turning point.
“We gained confidence from our goals and were back in the match,” Dalic said.
“But after Bellingham scored, we had about 10 very difficult minutes. We tried to recover and get back into the game, but we couldn’t.
“It was a strange match. We made too many mistakes, especially from set pieces, but I must congratulate England on their victory.”
Croatia now face a must-win encounter against Panama as they seek to keep their hopes of reaching the knockout stage alive.
