The 20-year-old midfielder is now in line for a return to Barclays Premier League action against Liverpool on Sunday but he remains frustrated at his country's inability to beat Ghana in the last eight.

Nigeria had already been beaten by the Ivory Coast and drawn with Mali without scoring a single goal and they then had to beat Benin by two goals to stand any chance of making the quarter-finals.

"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."

Mikel headed a 52nd-minute opener and then played the perfect through pass for Ayegbeni Yakubu to net the vital second with four minutes left on the clock against Benin.

Mikel added: "It is still a shocker for me. 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 knockout tie in Accra against team-mate Michael Essien and the host nation slowly turned into a nightmare for Mikel.

He admits the Nigeria team failed to function as a unit during the tournament and despite taking the lead and having a man advantage after an hour when Ghana captain John Mensah saw red, the Super Eagles failed to progress.

They lost 2-1 and Mikel appeared to be poked in the eye after a clash with Anthony Annan and could not complete the game.

Mikel insists the Ghana player punched him in the face and should have been red-carded.

"It was a punch," claimed 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.

"I got booked but he should have been given a red card. In England, it would have been a red card straight but he didn't get booked at all.

"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.

"If I stayed until the end of the game, maybe I could have made something happen but I just couldn't play with one eye."