Ancelotti: Ramires foul ´a clear penalty´

Carlo Ancelotti is adamant Chelsea were denied a late penalty in their 1-0 Champions League quarter-final loss to Manchester United.

Blues midfielder Ramires appeared to have been brought down by United’s Patrice Evra in the first leg’s dying stages, but the referee’s whistled stayed silent despite Chelsea’s appeals for a spot kick.

The penalty could have put Chelsea level, after Wayne Rooney’s goal handed United a 1-0 lead on 24 minutes.

“One. It was clear,” the Ancelotti said. “It was the foul on Ramires.”

“That one was a clear penalty.”

Blues custodian Petr Cech was also insistent there was a case of oversight on the match official’s part.

“I think everybody saw what happened. You can see it clearly on the telly, but the most important person didn’t see it, that’s the main thing,” he told ITV.

Despite conceding an away goal, Ancelotti said he was satisfied with his side’s showing on Wednesday.

“The performance was not bad. We had some moments where we weren’t able to have good control of the game with possession, in the middle of the first half, but in general the performance was good,” he said, with the second leg to played at Old Trafford next Tuesday.

“We had chances but it was difficult when we went 1-0 down to come back into the game.”

“They used the counter-attack very well, but we had some chances.”

“We hit the post and should have had a penalty and (Edwin) Van der Sar made a fantastic save from (Fernando) Torres.”

“We are disappointed but fortunately we still have 90 minutes at Old Trafford. It will not be easy, but last season at the same moment we needed to win there and we won the title.”