John Terry has hit back at critics who accused Chelsea's players of behaving badly as they crashed out of Europe against Paris Saint-Germain
Zlatan Ibrahimovic branded them 'babies' for their reaction to his tackle on Oscar which persuaded Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers to send him off half an hour into the 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge.
And Jamie Carragher called the pressure they put on the officials 'disgraceful' and said it came from manager Jose Mourinho, while Graeme Souness said Oscar's play acting was 'pathetic'.
'Coming from them?' was Terry's initial response, and the Chelsea captain added: 'I don't want to get involved in a row but as a group it's difficult. It's there and you have to stick up for your team-mates. The fans want to see that and that's the same with every side.
'Every other side is as bad as each other. It's part of the game. It's maybe an excuse they're looking for tonight but certainly not from our point.'
Terry claimed Chelsea had learned to deploy these dark arts because opponents did it, including PSG, and insisted it did not distract the Barclays Premier a League leaders from the real job.
'There was an awful lot going on but I don't think anyone got caught up in it,' he added. 'Once they're charging the ref, the only thing we can do is respond. You can't as a group of players let them surround the ref, trying to get our players booked.
'For me if I have to run 20, 30 yards, it doesn't look great but when you're standing back and seeing five or six of their players surrounding the ref, for me I think I support my team-mates.
'And once I go, four or five go with me, it doesn't look good at all but that's part of the game. We'll match it if people want to mix it, that's part of our game as well.'
It made for a disappointing night for Mourinho's players, dumped out on away goals despite leading twice and left to focus on the title race.
Terry said: 'We have to pick ourselves up and go again at the weekend now. We've got another big game against a very good Southampton side.
'We've got the Capital One Cup in the pocket and the Premier League is a massive one to go for. We're a few points clear and we need to keep that gap and maintain it.
We can only do that by responding and doing that the right way and coming back here and picking up three points.
'The manager said then if we can win the Capital One Cup and the Premier League, it will be a very successful year. There is an awful lot to do but it's in our hands and we have to respond. We've got four or five days until Sunday's game.
'[We'll have a] couple of days to warm down, go again train and then pick ourselves right back up. As a group of players, there's enough experience in the squad to rally round and get everyone going again.'
There will be no English teams in the last eight of the Champions League unless Arsenal or Manchester City can overturn first leg defeats next week in Monaco and Barcelona respectively.
Terry said: 'We've had our fair share of maintaining interest for English sides in the competition over the years. It's disappointing to go out early. It's different for us, we're normally in the hat for the next round for sure but from the club's point a view and the players and the fans, we're obviously really disappointed.
'They probably deserved the win and going down to 10 they were probably the better side as well. So I wish them good luck and we regroup and go again in this competition next season.'
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