Manuel Pellegrini insisted
Manchester City didn't deserve to be knocked out
of the Champions League after their 1-0
semifinal second-leg defeat at Real Madrid.
The 10-time champions scored the only goal
over the two legs with a deflected Gareth Bale
strike off City midfielder Fernando.
Real Madrid had 15 attempts on goal in
Wednesday's victory at the Bernabeu, while City
could only manage one on target throughout the
180 minutes -- a Kevin de Bruyne free kick in
injury time of the first leg.
However, Pellegrini claimed that Real Madrid
were fortunate to reach their 14th final thanks to
an own goal and said that his men restricted Real
Madrid to few chances.
He told a news conference: "We didn't deserve to
lose this game, the goal was very lucky or we
were very unlucky -- it was a cross that was
deflected into the top corner.
"That goal gave them more time to play but both
teams could couldn't create chances -- it was
similar to the first leg. We were missing David
Silva, [Samir] Nasri and Yaya [Toure] coming
back from an injury. We didn't have creative
players that could make a difference.
"I have no regrets. I think we work very well over
the 90 minutes and Real Madrid couldn't create
chances.
"After that you need players that can make the
difference and today we didn't. We didn't create
many chances -- like in the first leg. We were not
very creative in the last third. We worked very
well and tried to recover the ball high and make a
difference.
"I am disappointed because I think that was a
very close game with two teams who did not
create many chances. The two teams were
working with no one making a difference."
City's best effort came just before half-time,
when Fernandinho struck the outside of the post.
For the final 30 minutes, he brought on a more
attacking threat with Raheem Sterling and
Kelechi Iheanacho, but their only opportunity was
a long-range Sergio Aguero strike that landed on
the top of Keylor Navas' net.
Pellegrini added: "We had a good chance with
Fernandinho and another with Kun but we didn't
create very much.
"Of course if you don't reach the final you have
missed an opportunity. We played against a very
strong team that wasn't better than us.
"You need a little bit of luck but that wasn't the
reason we couldn't win the game. We tried but
we couldn't and that's why we couldn't reach the
final.
"Tonight and the game we played at the Etihad
we saw very equal teams. I don't think Real
Madrid demonstrated tonight that they are better
than Manchester City."
Pellegrini lost captain Vincent Kompany to yet
another muscle injury after just eight minutes but
the City boss insisted it did not disrupt his
defence despite the winning goal coming shortly
after.
"Of course it was not the best way to start the
semifinal to lose your captain," he said. "But we
didn't have any problem defending without
Vincent. What we didn't have tonight was the
creative players to make the difference.
"We'll see tomorrow, maybe it's his groin rather
than his calf."