Manuel Pellegrini admitted last night that Manchester City had departed the Champions League stage with a whimper, but he blamed bad luck for the deflected goal that cost them a place in the final.
An own goal by Fernando, who unwittingly diverted Gareth Bale’s cross past Joe Hart, earned Real Madrid a 1-0 aggregate win to set up a second final against Atletico Madrid, their neighbours, in three seasons.
City would have qualified for their first Champions League final on the away-goal rule had they found an equaliser, but they managed just five attempts on goal over the 90 minutes, not one of them on target.
Pellegrini maintained that City did not deserve to lose and that a goalless draw, followed by extra time and perhaps a penalty shoot-out would have been a fairer reflection of the tie — but he admitted that they had fallen short in a creative sense, having failed to ask serious questions of the Real defence. “Of course I’m not happy with the way we created,” the City manager said, “[but] we didn’t deserve to lose this game. Real were very lucky with the deflection and that goal gave them more time to play.
“It was not only our team [that failed to create chances]; both teams couldn’t really create. Fernandinho had a chance which hit the post, but, without David Silva and Samir Nasri and with Yaya Touré coming back from an injury, we didn’t have the creative players who could make a difference.
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“Neither team deserved to win. It should have gone to penalties. We didn’t see Real Madrid better than us, but we were not creative enough to damage [them]. The creative level for both teams was not so good.”
City’s performance was criticised by Rio Ferdinand, the former Manchester United and England defender, who was analysing the game for BT Sport. “You have got to go out with all guns blazing,” Ferdinand said. “City can’t say they’ve done that. They’ll wake up tomorrow disappointed by what has happened. They didn’t do enough, didn’t create enough opportunities, didn’t show desire or belief. They didn’t deserve to go through.”
City’s uninspiring display was perhaps best reflected in the performance of Touré, who exerted little or no influence. One local journalist asked Zinedine Zidane, the Real Madrid coach, afterwards whether he thought the midfielder looked as old as his shirt number: 42. Zidane declined to comment.
Pellegrini will leave City at the end of the season — to be replaced by Pep Guardiola — and, after a disappointing campaign in the Premier League, he is under pressure to at least secure Champions League qualification as his parting gift. City are fourth in the table with two games remaining and are in danger of losing out to Manchester United or West Ham United if they slip up at home to Arsenal on Sunday.
City suffered the loss of Vincent Kompany to a groin injury in the early stages of the game. It was another worrying blow to the captain, who, after a series of injury woes, is in danger of missing not only the end of the season but also Euro 2016 for Belgium.