Philippe Clement pays tribute to Ante Crnac after his goal in Norwich’s cup win

Norwich boss Philippe Clement paid tribute to returning forward Ante Crnac after he capped his 10-month battle to overcome a knee ligament injury with a vital second goal in his side’s 2-1 Carabao Cup win at Cardiff City Stadium.

Mathias Kvistgaarden had headed the Canaries into the lead in the 25th minute before Crnac came off the bench on the hour mark and tucked away Jack Stacey’s pass across the box with 12 minutes remaining to prove his knee problems are now behind him.

Cardiff eventually got on the scoresheet in the third added minute when Yousef Salech fired in, but it was too little, too late.

“I told him (Crnac) after the game that I was really happy for him to score after 10 months of hard work. All the team applauded him and that showed how they had all lived with him through his injury,” said Clement.

“It was super important for him to score the decisive goal and that will boost his confidence. He has stayed mentally strong.”

Clement had told his side he hadn’t seen their identity in last weekend’s 3-0 defeat at Millwall, but he was delighted with their battling spirit in the Welsh capital.

“We had five big chances and we could have scored three or four goals. It was a good team effort, positive given several players who are new in the building showed their quality,” added Clement.

“The important thing was the organisation and the mentality of the team. We are ambitious to go as far as possible in this competition.”

For Cardiff it was their first defeat of the season and head coach Brian Barry-Murphy admitted to being “disappointed” with the final result having taken his side to the quarter-finals last season.

“We are disappointed to exit the competition because we wanted to progress. We had some good chances but the goal came too late for us,” said Barry-Murphy.

Bluebirds defender Noah Anyadike became the youngest player in League Cup history after starting the match aged 15 years and 98 days.

The schoolboy, who hobbled off with a muscle cramp in the second half, broke a record previously held by Harvey Elliott, who featured in 2018 for Fulham against Millwall aged 15 years and 174 days.