Despite awarding Liverpool a penalty, Luis Medina Cantalejo upset the visiting bench with a succession of contentious decisions.

And while Benitez would not be drawn on the officiating, it was clear the Spaniard was unhappy.

“We had 29 fouls against,” he said. “But I think it’s better not to talk about these things.”

Gerrard didn’t even make the bench after succumbing to the adductor problem that hampered his performance in the first leg and ensured he played no part in the weekend win over Blackburn Rovers.

“We thought he’d be okay but he felt something,” said Benitez. “It was an easy decision in the end.

“To lose a key player who is so important, it shows we must give credit to the others for doing a fantastic job.

“We saw before that we have a good squad, with very important players like Torres and Gerrard who can score lots of goals, but we showed the rest of the players can do that too.”

Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink admits he was relieved his team had won through to a semi-final clash with Barcelona.

“My heart is now maybe at 100 but in some parts during the game it was up to 160,” said the Dutch coach. “We were angry at half-time because we did not start as we planned.

“We know Liverpool are a good team and we gave them too much space in the first half.

“This was one of those games where players are making a lot of errors, and it makes it a dramatic game. You think you are down, then you are up, it was one of those games. You have a wave of thinking you are going through then almost losing the game.

“We played against a team that can play beautiful football and they showed that if you give them space then you are in trouble.”