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)