Manchester City's run in the EFL Trophy was emphatically ended by Scunthorpe United.
Paul Harsley's side have impressed in the competition for a second straight season and had beaten three league sides on their way to the last-16.
Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Daniel Grimshaw, Tommy Doyle and Jayden Braaf were among the starters in a strong lineup at Glanford Park but they found this test much tougher than previous rounds. Scunthorpe may not be as high up the football pyramid as some other sides in the competition but manager Paul Hurst picked a side that would not look out of place in their league.
The hosts were happy to let City have the ball and delighted to capitalise on defensive lapses. Harwood-Bellis being caught in possession in the opening minutes set the tone for a first half that took the game away from the young Blues.
Kevin van Veen unleashed an unstoppable effort from 30 yards to give Scunthorpe the lead and then teed himself up to volley in a second as Grimshaw could not recover quickly enough from stopping John McAtee from scoring.
While City licked their wounds, captain Matthew Lund smashed home a third.
There was an improvement from Harsley's team after the break and Tommy Doyle got them on the scoresheet with 20 minutes to go, converting a penalty after Felix Nmecha - making his first appearance of the season - had been brought down in the box.
If they caused Scunthorpe more problems, they still weren't as clinical as their opponents in front of goal and Harwood-Bellis, Braaf and Nabil Touaizi all missed good opportunities to introduce more nerves to the home team.
Ultimately, Scunthorpe's first half did the damage and the young Blues must now shelve their Wembley dream for another season and focus the rest of their efforts this season on avoiding relegation in the Premier League 2 and pushing for FA Youth Cup glory.
