Rafael Benitez wants referee Roberto Rosetti to take a strong line with Chelsea forward Didier Drogba as Liverpool attempt to reach the Champions League final for the third time in four years tonight.

The Liverpool manager believes Drogba has a penchant for going to ground very easily under challenges and does not want the Italian official to be fooled into awarding fouls.

Ivory Coast international Drogba upset Benitez in the first leg at Anfield by his antics in a game that ended 1-1 when Liverpool full-back John Arne Riise scored a late own goal.

The result has set up an intriguing semi-final second leg at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge.

"He (Drogba) is very, very strong but he falls down.

"He slips a lot, "Benitez told reporters yesterday.

"Everybody can see this every game, it is very clear and hopefully the Italian referee, who has some experience in Europe, will see it as well."

A bigger concern for the Liverpool manager, however, is finding a way to score at Stamford Bridge, something that has eluded the Spaniard in eight games since he took charge at Anfield in 2004.

"It is a statistic but they can be changed very quickly," he added.

"We need to score so we will try to score. We don't have any problem with Stamford Bridge. They haven't lost for one hundred games or something like that in the Premier League and that means they are very strong at home.

"But we will try to score our goal. We don't need to win, just to draw 2-2 will be enough."

Liverpool won the two semi-final confrontations between the sides in 2005 and 2007 but were helped by playing the second leg at Anfield.

Chelsea also lost to Monaco at the same stage in 2004.

Benitez believes his side hold a psychological advantage as Chelsea fear a fourth exit at the penultimate stage in five seasons.

"I think they want to win clearly and all their supporters will push and try to support the team," he added.

"The players know it's an important game for them. They will be a little bit under pressure... we will be under pressure too because we want to win a trophy this year."

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.