Jason Wilcox: 'It's definitely not game over yet'

Wilcox watched on as City were downed by two early goals from England starlet Tammy Abraham, before Dominic Solanke dealt what could prove a fatal blow in the final minutes of the tie.

Despite the odds now seemingly being stacked against the Manchester club, who travel to Stamford Bridge for the return leg next Monday evening, Wilcox will take heart from the Blues’ second-half performance and believes that the first goal will prove crucial when the two Finalists meet again.

"It’s definitely not game over," he said. "We’re going down to Stamford Bridge and I think that anything can happen down there. If we get a goal then we’ll see what character they’ve got. 

"At 3-1 we’re still in the tie. We’re obviously disappointed and we would have preferred to lose 2-1 but we are most definitely still in the tie. 

"I thought it was all us [in the] second half and that gives us confidence going into the second leg."

Manuel Pellegrini, Patrick Vieira and Vincent Kompany were all in attendance to oversee the club’s next crop of burgeoning talent and despite the defeat, Wilcox hopes that his players gave both the club and the fans a glimpse of the future.

"The boys want to impress the first-team players and the manager and its fantastic to have them here watching," he explained.

"Hopefully this has given the fans some excitement about the players that are coming through. We had a lot of first-year scholars playing tonight through injuries that we’ve got. 

"We’ve lost big players but I thought the lads who came in did a really brilliant job and showed such maturity from lads who are so young."