Norwich should have progressed past Everton in Capital One Cup, says Alex Neil
Wednesday 28 October 2015 00:11, UK
Norwich manager Alex Neil felt his side deserved to qualify for the Capital One Cup quarter-finals after they were knocked out by Everton on penalties.
The Canaries dominated large spells of the game but struggled to find a way past Everton stopper Joel Robles, who produced a string of fine saves to keep the hosts in the game.
Everton then sealed their passage through to the next round, winning 4-3 on penalties after the game ended 1-1 after extra time.
Neil said: "I thought we played really well. If anybody deserved to win the match over the 90 or 120 minutes I thought it was us.
"We were unfortunate it went to a penalty shoot-out and the fact we went out of the Cup having played really well tonight is disappointing.
"We've been doing a lot of work and we made some slight tweaks to the shape tonight. I thought it worked, the boys did extremely well.
"They worked really hard and deserved to go through to be honest but I'm really encouraged in terms of the performance and how they applied themselves."
With perhaps an eye on Saturday's trip to Manchester City, Neil made seven changes to his side, with a number of fringe players drafted into the starting line-up at Goodison.
And Neil was pleased with the contribution of those who are not necessarily first-team regulars, admitting he will now have a selection headache ahead of the trip to Etihad.
"I thought all the boys that came in showed up well tonight, that makes it difficult going forward," he added.
"Obviously Saturday is going to be a different kettle of fish playing away to Man City and to be fair they've done a lot of work tonight so we've got to make sure we balance things out come the weekend.
"But some of them will be vying for a place come the weekend. I was pleased with everything tonight.
"All you can ask of your players is that they give everything, they try their best and they apply themselves as best as they can.
"Everyone one of them ran themselves into the ground and you can't ask any more than that."
