Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew said his team were punished at every opportunity by a relentless Manchester City, who made the most of their opportunities in a 5-1 rout.
Palace's League Cup campaign came to an end at the fourth-round stage on Wednesday as Kevin De Bruyne guided City to the quarter-finals.
Pardew and Co. trailed 2-0 heading into the break after De Bruyne added to Wilfried Bony's 22nd-minute opener, and the visitors never recovered.
Kelechi Iheanacho and a Yaya Toure penalty put City in cruise control, while Damien Delaney gave Palace something to cheer about in the closing stages before teenager Manu Garcia completed the rout in Manchester.
Speaking afterwards, Pardew had no complaints about the result against the Premier League leaders.
"It was a tough night for us, we were short on numbers tonight and the team lacked a bit of balance," Pardew said via Palace's official website.
"A lot of our flair players were injured but Manchester City played well tonight and took their chances and unfortunately we didn't.
"Almost every time City had a chance they punished us, particularly in the first 60 minutes and that was very much the story.
"We had three or four good chances and it is not often that you get that so you have to take them and we were then vulnerable particularly when they go two ahead.
"We should have scored before they did and then at 2-0 had a great chance but we didn't make the most of them. They deserved the victory so we have no complaints."
