India, Aug. 25 -- India's men's hockey team failed to overcome the pressure of conceding an early goal and saw its hopes of reaching the World Cup semifinals end with a 3-5 loss to Argentina here on Monday.

After losing to the Netherlands in their previous match, India were almost out of the race for the last four from Pool E. However, Argentina's victory over England had technically kept their qualification hopes alive.

India needed to win by at least three goals to advance, but conceded twice in the opening six minutes and struggled to recover. Poor passing, frequent loss of possession and a leaky defence compounded their problems.

India did manage to score twice within a span of two minutes late in the match, but by then it was too ...