Madrid made it difficult for us to create goal scoring chances – Manuel Pellegrini

Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini has admitted that his team ‘struggled to create’ clear chances in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid on Tuesday night.

Neither side could find the back of the net at the Etihad as the pair played out a goalless draw in Manchester, leaving the tie delicately poised ahead of the return match in Madrid next week.

Pellegrini has claimed that his side suffered when David Silva was forced off with a hamstring problem in the first period, but is confident ahead of the second leg at the Bernabeu on May 4.

“I think that we defended very well, we tried to create, but we lost the ball too much after David went off,” Pellegrini told BT Sport. “We supposed that Real Madrid were going to play a slow game. Unfortunately when we had the ball, we could not make the difference. We had some options, but we could not score.

“I think we have played very well away from home this season. Now we are going to go to the Bernabeu with the same attitude and we will have more space because Real Madrid must attack a little bit more.”