Middlesbrough boss Michael Carrick praised Cole Palmer after their Carabao Cup semifinal defeat at Chelsea.
Palmer scored twice as Chelsea won 6-1 to reach the final 6-2 on aggregate.
Carrick said: "He is a real talent. Nice lad as well. Down to Earth and you can see when you come up against him he will go on to have a great career.
"It's not nice when you are on the end of it but we can appreciate and respect how good he is."
On his players, Boro's manager also said: "They will learn from that after they have gotten over the disappointment. But yeah, we had a big night at the Riverside where we managed to beat a really good Chelsea team. We just couldn't get it done here, unfortunately."