Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City had enough chances to beat Stoke after being held to a goalless draw at the Etihad Stadium.
The home side had just one shot on target in the Premier League encounter on Wednesday night, as a resilient Potters stopped them from reaching their free-flowing best.
"We had our chances and could have scored in the second half, but they were a good team and a strong team physically," Guardiola told Sky Sports. "We missed the last pass or action but created enough to win the game, but unfortunately we could not.
"They defended __with 10 players back and tried long balls all the time, and we were not able to overcome that situation.
"But we keep going, in two-and-a-half days we have the [FA Cup quarter-final] at Middlesbrough and then we go to Monaco [in the Champions League]."
Guardiola made three changes for the game, including leaving David Silva on the bench and Raheem Sterling out of the squad.
Silva was introduced in the second half and created some of Manchester City's best chances of the game, but Guardiola insisted he did not regret leaving him out of the starting line-up.
"He's a special player and gave us more opportunities in the game to create more chances, but unfortunately we could not win," Guardiola added.
"I had to take decisions before the game, but we play every three days a lot of games and that's why we have to bring in other players to play."