Napoli president Aurelio de Laurentiis insists a lack of European experience is no excuse for their Champions League elimination. Chelsea's 4-1 win last night was enough to see off Napoli 5-4 on aggregate.

De Laurentiis declared: "I applauded my players in the locker room, I thanked them. We hope to return again next year to the Champions League. Chelsea has great experience with senior players. We have had many chances but we were not good enough.

"The referee? He's very capable, the referees were not wrong, I have nothing to complain about.

"We lack experience? Rubbish! It's one thing to rely on provincial experience. If anyone knows how to play football they can play football, saying we didn't have the experience is c***.

"Such experience is a logic that does not exist, we must not use that excuse."