John Obi Mikel has returned to Chelsea from the Africa Cup Of Nations full of disappointment and regret over Nigeria's quarter-final exit. The 20-year-old midfielder, now an automatic in the Super Eagles starting X1, spoke of his frustration at being knocked out of the competition by hosts Ghana in the last eight. Nigeria had already lost one-nil to the Ivory Coast and played out a 0-0 against Mali and so had to beat Benin by two goals to stand any chance of making the quarter-finals. Mikel was clearly up for the game and turned in a match-winning performance. He headed the opening goal on 52 minutes and then laid on a slide-rule pass for Yakubu to score the second with just four minutes left on the clock. "I felt the pressure," Mikel admitted. "That is why the game against Benin, I just had to do something because everyone was looking to me and I had to do something and make sure we qualify, which I did. I took the team to the quarter-finals but I couldn't get us to the semi-finals." "It is still a shocker for me," he added. "I cannot believe we won against them and then lost to Ghana in the quarter-final. I think we played better than Ghana. When they went down to 10 men, we really thought it was over." The Chelsea player also claimed that he was punched in the face during the game in a clash with Ghana's Anthony Annan. He was unable to complete the game. "It was a punch," argues Mikel. "I couldn't see when I went back on the pitch and I had to go off. When the ball was coming, I couldn't see it properly." Even more contentiously, Mikel also accused the referee of favouring the home side. "Maybe it was decided not to give a red as they had one man out already. It was one of those things and playing against the host country's team, maybe you should expect that." Nigeria's final 2008 Africa Cup Of Nations statistics are played four, won one, drew one and lost two. Source: Goal.com