The Great Britain men's water polo team should take positives from their 13-4 defeat to Romania, according to their captain Craig Figes.
Team GB squandered too many chances in front of goal, but the 33-year-old from Bristol believes the performance was better than the result suggested.
"The scoreline is a bit harsh on us," he said. "Towards the end of the second quarter, they put their chances away and we didn't. There were quite a few extras [man-up situations] that we didn't convert, and once you're four or five goals down to a world class team, like we were playing, then it's always very difficult."
Figes got Great Britain off the mark with a penalty in the first quarter, before 24-year-old Rob Parker from Cheltenham scored twice in the third, and 22-year-old Jack Waller, from Enfield, netted in the fourth period.
Figes added: "We actually performed quite well, especially in the first half. We created a lot of chances. We didn't put those chances away. So if we can keep that performance and put the ball in the back of the net when we create the chances, then we'll get a lot closer."
Asked how the team will move forward towards their next game against Serbia, he said: "We just love the challenge. We're playing the best teams in the world, so there's no pressure on us building towards the next game.
"We'll put that one [against Romania] behind us. We'll build on the positives of the performance and we'll work on the finishing touches on it, and we look forward to challenging in the next game."
Despite scoring the first-quarter penalty, Figes missed another in the second half. Asked about being the first Briton to score at an Olympic Games for 56 years, he said: "It was a relief to be honest.
"When you take a penalty you've got a couple of minutes to think about your shot, but I'm confident to take penalties. I think you have to accept you're going to miss a few from time to time, and I missed another one later in the match. Against good goalies, sometimes they guess right."
Parker echoed his captain, saying: "We're disappointed after the loss. There were good parts and we competed for the whole game. It went away a bit at the end, but it was just a case of maybe them putting their chances away. But even though we lost, it's still quite positive."