Michael Ballack believes the Blues showed great character in the face of adversity last night.

Although disappointed, the German international insisted Chelsea played a great game and deserved to win last night's fixture, especially considering certain penalty appeals went unheeded.

'It's disappointing the way we went out of the competition,' said Ballack. 'We played fantastic tactically, it was the same in the first game, but we had much more chances to score this time, but we didn't and we conceded in the last minute.

'But there were also a lot of decisions that weren't right.'

Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo ignored several appeals from the Blues, including what appeared a clear cut penalty when Nicolas Anelka knocked the ball onto Gerard Piqué's hand.

'There is a point where you have one, two decisions that maybe you can speak about after but there were at least four or five in the box and maybe two or three you have to give.

'He had to give a penalty and at this level, Champions League semi-final, I don't know if you have to accept the decisions. But that's what has happened now, we are out and that's football.'

Ballack knows we faced one of the toughest sides Europe has to offer but he feels we proved ourselves as the better team.

'We showed great character. We played against a top team in Europe, maybe the strongest in Europe at the moment, and we deserved to go into the next round but we didn't.

'Everybody could see why we didn't, Chelsea is a big team and we had a big disappointment with at least one penalty.

'We could have got the cup, but then, in the 92nd minute, it is unbelievable. It is the same as last year when the pain was unbelievable, it is now as well.'