Like expected Real Madrid delivered their one hundred percent to defeat visiting Manchester City in the return leg of championship league semifinal yesterday night. It was not the game Real dominated yet they could manage to score one goal which was enough to take them into the finals of the European tourney. Manuel Pellegrini, although, was optimistic to offer a tough resistance to 10-time champions but his side failed on crucial moments and conceived the crucial goal. Gareth Bale becomes the only scorer when he strikes off City midfielder Fernando. If we look at the course of the game, City looked confident before the game but they failed miserably to defeat Real’s defense hence could not fire while hosts, on the other hand, attempted as many as fifteen shots on City goalpost with one success.
Even then, it was not an easy win for Santiago Bernabéu side as they had to use best of their talent to win in front of their home crowd and Pellegrini seems not to be disheartened with the loss as he believes his side delivered very good performance on alien soil. Talking about the game and if City was the right contender to lose eventually, he said in the post-match 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, Nasri and Yaya 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.”
Adding about the last thirty minutes of the game and how they changed their strategy therein, he explained, “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.”