Roberto Mancini felt Manchester City had been hindered by a poor pitch as they were held to a goalless draw by Aris Thessaloniki in Greece.
City enjoyed the better of the Europa League last-32 tie at Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium, with striker Edin Dzeko going close on several occasions for the visitors - but Mancini felt the playing surface had denied his side the chance to make their superiority pay.
He said: "I think we had control of the game but this pitch was difficult to play on, and I think if we had scored in the first half with Dzeko things may have changed. But they defended with nine or 10 men behind the ball so it was difficult."
But the Italian was pleased to see his side keep a clean sheet ahead of next week's second leg at Eastlands.
"It would have been better if we'd won this game," he added. "We tried but it was difficult as they defended well, but I think this is a good result.
"At Eastlands we will have a good pitch to play better football with the ball on the floor."
Shaun Wright-Phillips agreed with his manager's assessment of the playing surface.
"It was very hard, we had to watch the ball to the last minute and sometimes we missed out on some passes. But after the tough result on the weekend to come and get this is a good result."
Wright-Phillips has been tipped to leave Eastlands in the summer after struggling for opportunities but dismissed such talk, saying: "It's not about my future at the minute, I'm happy playing at the moment."
Goalkeeper Joe Hart told ITV4: "It's not a bad result and we needed to make sure we did not get beaten, and the only reason it was 0-0 was because their goalkeeper made two great saves."
Hart escaped punishment after appearing to handle the ball outside the box and said: "It looked like it, but I didn't.
"We've checked it back and obviously there was a bit of a mix-up with me and Gareth Barry, but I wouldn't have caught it if I thought it was outside the box and I knew I wasn't.
"I thought the referee got bullied a little bit but that's what happens in situations like this. The crowd tends to get on top of things, but what can you do?"
