Ante Crnac scored on his return from a lengthy injury as Norwich City earned their spot in the Carabao Cup third round at the expense of hosts Cardiff City.

Crnac, making his first appearance in 10 months after being out with a cruciate ligament injury, doubled the Canaries' advantage after Mathias Kvistgaarden had given them a first-half lead.

Norwich will take encouragement from a victory over their divisional rivals, having failed to record a win in their opening Championship fixtures.

For Cardiff, the game will be remembered for Noah Anyadike's debut aged 15 years and 98 days, the youngest in club and competition history.

The Wales youth international was thrust into the starting line-up by Brian Barry-Murphy amid a defensive injury crisis, and hobbled off with his own knock after 53 minutes.

Except for a few long-range efforts, neither side looked likely to open the scoring until Kvistgaarden gave Norwich the lead midway through the first half.

Unmarked from a corner, the Dane powered in a header, and Liam Gibbs would have doubled the Canaries' lead five minutes later had it not been for Nathan Trott.

Norwich came even closer to increasing their advantage five minutes after the restart when Anis Ben Slimane headed on to the crossbar.

Crnac made the most of his comeback as he let rip from range, but could only sting the palms of Bluebirds keeper Trott.

But the 22-year-old did not have to wait much longer for the moment he would have been dreaming about as he slotted home on 78 minutes to ensure Norwich's progress.

An injury-time goal from Yousef Salech, his fourth of the season, was too little too late for Cardiff, despite a late frenzy.

The draw for the third round of the EFL Cup takes place on Wednesday, 26 August.

Cardiff City head coach Brian Barry-Murphy :

"We are disappointed to exit the competition; we obviously wanted to progress. I felt as if we had some good chances.

"The goal from Yousef Salech probably came a little bit too late for us to come back. The selection was based purely on players you could and couldn't play.

"It was an incredible evening for Noah, and really well deserved. We've been lucky because he's obviously still in school, so he spent so much time with us in the school holidays.

"He's making exceptional strides, and he's a very talented player. We're very happy."