Craig Fulton urges India to improve in big matches after World Cup exit

Indian men's hockey team head coach Craig Fulton admitted his team's slow start and inability to handle the pressure of a must-win game proved costly as they missed out on a place in the World Cup semifinals here on Monday.

"It was a difficult day today.

We didn't want to end like that.

We started poorly, but the second quarter was much better.

The third quarter wasn't good, but then we scored three goals in the last quarter and could have scored the fourth one too from a corner," Fulton told PTI after the 3-5 loss to Argentina.

"Overall, it was a really strange game.

We played at a high level in tournament, but in the big games we have to do better," he added.

He also said the permutations surrounding India's qualification for the semifinals had affected the team's performance.

"There were a lot of permutations going into this game that got the better of us.

In the last 10 minutes, we played better hockey.

That was a little too late," he said.

Forward Sukhjeet Singh, who scored .