John Terry says sorry to Chelsea and the club's fans for getting himself sent off against Barcelona "At first Terry claimed he was innocent by saying: "The player checked his run and piled into the back of me. He put his weight on the back foot, that's why my knee went up. I've not had a booking in the Champions League this year. I would not deliberately strike another player. That would be madness. But after watching the incident on an TV replay, Terry admitted: "At the time, I was bewildered because I was trying to protect myself a little bit, but looking at it on the replay, I've no complaints. I've let the lads down. I deserved to be sent off. I tried to protect myself and raised my knee, but realise I should not have done. I'm not that type of player. I'm disappointed but delighted for the lads. To come here and play the way they did and get the result with 10 men - I feel I've let them down. I've apologised to them and I want to apologise to the fans as well. Frank Lampard will captain Chelsea in Terry's absence and he hailed the draw as "one of the finest moments in a Chelsea shirt" for him. "I know people want to see beautiful football but with 10 men to play for 50 minutes and to be 2-0 down here and to perform like that - what spirit - unbelievable," the midfielder added. There was a determination about us and you get what you deserve and we were all in it together today and what a fantastic result. Of course, Chelsea people have a lot of love and respect for Jose Mourinho but we are just delighted to go through. Defender Ashley Cole claimed the result was a testimony to the team's spirit. "We all believed, not many did but the players did and this is what happened," he said. We defended as a team and we got a bit lucky, Petr made some great saves. Three to four months ago no one thought we had chance but we had meetings, got the players together and said we believed and knew we were good enough to be here. We have proved it. For Chelsea's interim manager, Roberto Di Matteo, it was another compelling case to award him the job on a full-time basis even if, strangely, Roman Abramovich was not in attendance for such an important occasion. Di Matteo exonerated Terry by saying "we're all human beings" and suggested his action may have been a result of Chelsea's gruelling schedule. "We're put under pressure every three days," he said "This was our fourth game in nine days, and everybody can make a mistake. We work as a group and we're delighted we've gone through. Of Terry he added: "He's obviously very sad and disappointed that he got sent off tonight, and won't be able to play in the final. But we're all delighted that Chelsea FC and all the players involved on the bench here, and those not on the bench, are going to be in the final. We have a good squad which we've been using. I'm sure we'll put a good team together. It was an incredible game. So many things happened. I'm happy and pleased for all the players because they deserved this. We've had a difficult season and we seem to always get something special out when we need to. That's part of the DNA of these players. Di Matteo defended Chelsea's defensive tactics in the tie. They are the best team in the world. They're amazing," he said of Barcelona. They have some of the best players in the world as well. The way we played and defended - we just showed a lot of desire to reach the final. We had a little bit of luck, but to win the trophy, you need that. Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola refused to criticise Chelsea. "We did everything we could, but we didn't score," he said. Football is like this sometimes. It wasn't our year, our turn. Other years, we've won everything.