FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (CMC) — Bermuda Captain Nahki Wells has conceded that Haiti were the better team and deserved their 4-1 victory in the Concacaf Gold Cup preliminary round match at the DRV PNK Stadium here.

“We know we underachieved, both defensively and in the attack,” said Bristol City striker Wells, 31, who was disappointed his unchanged team could not build on the 8-1 victory over Barbados last week.

“It’s hard to put a finger on what went wrong, but they were just the better team. We had enough chances to probably get a couple more goals, but they did what you have to do to win games and that was score goals.”

Bermuda were undone by a first-half hat-trick inside 11 minutes from 26-year-old Frantzdy Pierrot, 26 — the same player who scored a brace when Haiti beat Bermuda 2-1 in Costa Rica during the 2019 edition of the Gold Cup.

“Obviously 1-0 is never a difficult scoreline for us to turn around because we can score against anybody, but when it went to 2-0 I don’t think we managed the game well enough,” said Wells.

“As our captain, I have to say I underachieved in that department and didn’t rally us enough to stay in the game,” added Wells, who notched a second-half consolation goal.

Kyle Lightbourne, the Bermuda national coach, expressed disappointment over the island’s exit from the tournament, in which Bermuda made their debut two years ago, but believed his players gave their all on Tuesday night.

Lightbourne admitted the Haitians were superior and said poor finishing led to Bermuda’s demise.

“The scoreline is disappointing, but I think my players gave me all they can,” he said.

“This level is something that we are trying to bridge… so overall I think the players gave us what they could.”