Roberto Martinez insisted his team's defending was not to blame after Everton suffered a thrashing at Dynamo Kiev that ensured there will be no British quarter-finalists in European competitions this season.
The Toffees went into Thursday's Europa League last-16 second leg in the Ukrainian capital leading the tie 2-1, but were thumped 5-2 at the Olympic Stadium to crash out 6-4 on aggregate.
Fine strikes from Dynamo's Andriy Yarmolenko and then Romelu Lukaku made it 1-1 on the night before Everton's poor defending allowed their hosts to score three times without reply through Lukasz Teodorczyk, Miguel Veloso and Oleg Gusev.
A brilliant Vitorino Antunes effort added another goal for Dynamo and Phil Jagielka's subsequent header was simply too little too late as a treble of eliminations this week for the Barclays Premier League's last three remaining clubs in Europe was completed following Arsenal and Manchester City's Champions League exits.
Martinez admitted Everton had not defended well enough but also stressed there had been some "incredible finishing" from Dynamo.
He said: "I think it was a case of Dynamo building a lot of momentum with their home crowd, with everything they hit going into the net, rather than us just being to blame, with not being able to defend a bit better."
The Spaniard was keen to emphasise that his side - for whom Ross Barkley hit the woodwork twice - had created "enough" opportunities themselves, adding: "Sometimes the margins are so small."
And although acknowledging there had been individual "defensive mistakes" from his players, Martinez said he had no regrets about the selection he had made at the back.
He opted to keep John Stones on the bench and play Antolin Alcaraz in central defence alongside Jagielka.
Martinez pointed out that the same defence had kept a clean sheet in Sunday's 3-0 Premier League win over Newcastle, and that a similar one, again featuring the Jagielka-Alcaraz combination, had only conceded once in the first leg against Dynamo.
The manager said: "The defence have been very strong in the last two games. I felt the communication and experience between them would be important.
"The whole team did not defend well enough. I don't think it was about the personnel."
Dynamo coach Sergei Rebrov was delighted his players had given his fellow Ukrainians something to cheer about, particularly given the recent turmoil the eastern European nation has seen.
"What can I say? We won a really important game and I am really happy with my boys," Rebrov, the former Ukraine and Tottenham striker, said.
"Everyone who was on the pitch really wanted to play, and it couldn't be any other way because there was such a big crowd here.
"Also, millions of Ukrainians were watching this game on television.
"We are really happy we made a kind of holiday for them during such a difficult period in our history."
Source: PA-WIRE
