Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez has told his Chelsea counterpart Jose Mourinho to expect defeat in tonight’s Champions League semi-final.

“Jose is one of the best coaches and he has a very good team, sure, but they will lose on Tuesday,” said Benitez.

“Chelsea have the most expensive team in the world and a good manager. But we have our supporters and Chelsea do not hold the balance, it is 50-50.

“We say well done for the league, but sorry as you will not win this cup.”

Benitez has highlighted captain Steven Gerrard as the diffference between the two sides.

“In my opinion, Steve will be the key player for us,” he added. “He can change a game and you saw against Middlesbrough on Saturday the kind of goals he can score.

“I am sure he will play well. He knows that the supporters are behind him and he is the key player. He is fantastic, he can change the game.

“We will try to do our job, play as well as possible and to win. After watching my team and how they train, and seeing their faces, I have confidence in them.

“It is not easy to contain Chelsea, ask Barcelona and Bayern Munich. But with our supporters behind us I believe we can win.

“We have the best supporters in England and now we must show that we have the best supporters in Europe.”

Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher believes pressure is on big spending Chelsea.

“All the pressure is on Chelsea. They have spent a lot of money and are expected to succeed in this competition,” said Carragher.

“Don’t forget Claudio Ranieri got sacked for getting to the semi-finals of this tournament last year.

“The only pressure on us is the pressure we are putting on ourselves.

“We have respect for what they have achieved. They have won the Premiership and that’s a difficult thing to do but we can stop them in their tracks.

“Chelsea were very strong favourites before the first leg but we got a good result and now they are only slight favourites. We have bridged the gap.

“You don’t know when you will get to this stage of the competition again and we want to get to the final.”

Carragher believes the Livferpool supporters will have a key role to play tonight.

“I don’t need to give the fans a message, they have produced some wonderful European nights here and they will be right on form again,” he added.

“The Olympiacos and Juventus atmospheres were something special and if we get the result this time it could eclipse even the St Etienne night back in the 1970s.”