SOCCER:MANCHESTER United manager Alex Ferguson praised his side's performance, in particular Wayne Rooney's contribution to last night's tie. "To be honest I thought their player made the most of it," he said of the first penalty claim. "I haven't seen the replay but there is plenty to talk about with penalty claims and dives but I thought our players were great.

“Wayne just played his game. He got a lot of abuse and late tackles but he played his game and that shows the courage of the players.

“He was important on the counter-attack and he was in tremendous form and he has given us a great chance of reaching the semi.”

Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech could not believe that Chelsea were not awarded a spot-kick for Patrice Evra’s crude lunge on Brazilian Ramires. “I think everybody saw what happened, you can see clearly on the TV,” he said. “But the most important person did not see it.

“We lost the game and we have left ourselves a mountain to climb but we have to do it. I think we created chances and that was the key. They had their first chance and scored and we had some but we didn’t score, and that’s the difference.”