Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti criticises referee after Manchester City stalemate

Kevin de Bruyne's scorcher cancelled out an almost equally ferocious strike from Vinicius Jr as the two heavyweights could not be separated at the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday night.

De Bruyne's strike did not come without its fair share of controversy as the ball appeared to go out in the build-up with Ancelotti subsequently being yellow-carded for his vehement protests.

"It looked like [the ball] was out," Ancelotti told Movistar. "And before that, there was a corner which [the referee] didn't give. The referee wasn't very attentive. He gave me a yellow card, and I said, 'Give them on the pitch, not off it!'

"It was out. It's not me saying it; the technology does," Ancelotti added in his postmatch news conference. "It surprises me. They're small details, but the referee wasn't attentive. The players deserved more cards on the pitch, not [me] off the pitch."

"[The feeling] is good," Ancelotti said after Tuesday's game. "We competed, we fought and maybe we deserved to win. It was a good game. The result doesn't give us our reward, but this tie will be even until the last minute."

City coach Pep Guardiola said his team had been unable to take advantage of their control of the match in the first half and that he hoped to tweak his tactics ahead of the second leg.

"It's football," Guardiola said, when asked about City's failure to score earlier. "It's Real Madrid. I wasn't surprised. We'll have to see how we can find a balance, if we can attack a little bit.

"[David] Alaba and [Antonio] Rudiger were so close to Erling [Haaland]. The spaces between the centre-backs and full-backs were occupied; it wasn't easy to find space for Erling. We'll try to make some changes, to play with a little bit more rhythm."