MADRID, SPAIN -- 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."