Manchester City were wedded to taking Kyle Walker off at half-time regardless of the score.
The England international started at the London Stadium on Wednesday night but was not seen after the interval, with Joao Cancelo taking his place at half-time; Cancelo stepped up to take a penalty in the shootout and scored, although Phil Foden's miss at the beginning of it proved decisive.
Pep Guardiola picked a strong enough side for the league cup game, but suggested after the defeat that there were bigger challenges on the horizon that influenced the team selection.
City take on Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Saturday looking to keep pace with Chelsea and Liverpool before facing Club Brugge at home in the easiest - on paper, anyway - of their three remaining Champions League group games.
With those matches in mind, City always planned to swap Walker for Cancelo to share the minutes out and didn't deviate from the plan when they went in goalless at the break.
"We spoke about 45 minutes for Kyle and 45 minutes for Joao," said Guardiola.
"It doesn't matter the result, it is 45 and 45. They play a lot of minutes and I don't want to put extra energy because we have a tough week ahead of us.
"I was really impressed with the games Crystal Palace played and Brugge is a final for us to qualify for the next round [of the Champions League]."
