Roy Hodgson said his Crystal Palace side did their best and had no complaints following a 3-1 defeat against Manchester City.
Palace managed to beat City at the Etihad Stadium earlier in the season, but there was no repeat upset on home soil as Raheem Sterling’s double put Pep Guardiola’s men in control.
Luka Milivojevic gave Palace hope with a free-kick nine minutes from time, but substitute Gabriel Jesus wrapped a ninth straight win for City in stoppage time.
Palace boss Hodgson has no doubt City can pull off an unprecedented four-trophy haul, and praised his own players for putting up a good fight. “I think they look in very good shape,” he said. “They came here with a fully-fit squad and they paid us the respect of putting a very strong team out.
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That doesn’t make the task any easier. “I can only say what everyone else knows. They are a very good team and will take some beating in any competition they play. “You do your very best, but it’s difficult to get the balance right, to make sure you don’t get torn apart tactically, but to put them under enough pressure to concern them.
“You can complain about various aspects of your own play, but the bottom line is, if they hadn’t scored the goals in the way they did, they’d have scored them another way.”
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