India coach Graham Reid and captain Vivek Prasad Sagar expressed their disappointment over the loss against France in the third-fourth play-off game of the FIH Odisha Men's Junior World Cup at the Kalinga Stadium on Sunday.
"Our performance was not up to the mark today. We started aggressively but lost momentum after the half time. Our guys created many penalty corner and field goal scoring opportunities, but failed to capitalise on those," said Reid after the match.
"At the hindsight, had we converted half of those chances, we could have been in an advantageous position," said Reid.
The coach also admitted that lack of international exposure and practice sessions due to Covid-19 imposed restrictions pegged the team back.
"Hopefully, our guys will be bolstered by their experiences of playing against some world class teams in such a mega tournament and metamorphose into big stage players in the senior team," said Reid.
Skipper Vivek also admitted that the team lacked intensity in the big game against France.
"We have to improve both our defence and attack lines in big pressure games like this. Hopefully, we will learn from our failures and won't repeat our mistakes in future", said Vivek.