Chelsea striker Didier Drogba labelled referee Tom Henning Ovrebo a "disgrace" after his side's Champions League exit at the hands of Barcelona.
The Blues felt they had four strong shouts for penalties before Barcelona won the semi-final on away goals with a 93rd-minute Andres Iniesta strike.
After the 1-1 second-leg draw, Drogba ran on to the pitch to confront Ovrebo at the final whistle and was booked.
He then shouted and swore into TV cameras and may face action from Uefa.
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" Chelsea were left with the bitter after-taste of defeat and the potential consequences of another loss of control from Drogba "
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Drogba, who had been substituted after 72 minutes, had to be restrained as Norwegian Ovrebo went down the tunnel.
Blues captain John Terry, who also strongly remonstrated with Ovrebo, defended the reactions of the Chelsea players and Drogba in particular.
"I am fully behind Didier for the way he reacted," declared Terry. "The man wants to win. You can see the passion that he played with during the game and the passion afterwards.
"People are saying we shouldn't have reacted the way we did but the fact is, six decisions went against us in front of 40,000 people. And for the ref to not give one of them is unusual."
The central defender also condemned the decision to select Ovrebo for such a high-profile tie.
"We get a referee who has officiated in 10 Champions League games in his career. For me, for him to be given a semi-final at Stamford Bridge, that's not good enough," Terry told BBC Radio 5 Live.
In fact, the match official has been in charge of 28 Champions League games since 1999 but midfielder Frank Lampard was equally damning of the decisions to reject Chelsea's penalty appeals.
"The penalties are clear as day," he added. "The linesman's in line, the referee's nearby. There were about three of them that were clear as anything and I can't understand why they weren't given."
Fellow midfielder Michael Ballack, who was booked for running 40 yards alongside Ovrebo to protest over the final penalty appeal being dismissed, said: "Everybody saw it and it was not one or two decisions, there were at least three, four five maybe we can discuss.
"It was not just the last-minute decision. If you have the history of the situations before maybe he should give this one at least."
Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink supported his players for their actions and revealed he would stand by them.
"I can fully understand in the emotion of the game, as long as they don't touch him, I can fully understand this disappointment," he said of his players' reactions to the referee's rulings.
"It's not just one decision in doubt but it's several.
"I can fully understand and I protect my players for this when they have this emotion, just with loads of energy and adrenalin in their bodies."
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