José Mourinho may have left London, but the bad blood between Chelsea and Liverpool shows no signs of disappearing after Avram Grant’s team booked their place in the Carling Cup semi-finals courtesy of an ill-tempered 2-0 win last night.

Second-half goals from Frank Lampard and Andriy Shevchenko secured Chelsea a last-four meeting with Everton – Arsenal face two mouth-watering matches against Tottenham Hotspur in the other tie – though missing out on a Merseyside derby is the least of Liverpool’s problems.

Rafael BenÍtez, the Liverpool manager, left Stamford Bridge complaining bitterly about the nature of his side’s exit, with a stinging attack on Martin Atkinson’s decision to send off Peter Crouch in the 60th minute, just after Chelsea had taken the lead.

The referee appeared to have little option after the England striker aimed a wild two-footed lunge on John Obi Mikel, though BenÍtez claimed that the Nigerian midfield player had fouled Crouch twice in the build-up to the incident and that the whistle should already have been blown.

“Did you watch the replay?” he said. “If you watch the replay, twice Mikel was trying to kick Crouch before that. If you blow your whistle, you avoid the sending-off.

“Sometimes you must be a little bit quicker with the whistle. He was kicking him twice, which is why Crouch lost his head. I’m watching more dangerous tackles in the last month. Sometimes it’s yellow cards, sometimes it’s nothing. I think that if he’d stopped before, it wasn’t anything. There were two Mikel challenges before. The challenge itself could be a red card, but the timing is the key for me. It finished the game.

“We’re disappointed we lost, but we played very well. We had chances, but they have a very good goalkeeper. I’m really pleased with the performance of the team. With 11 players we played really well, we passed the ball and defended well, but it was just a little luck and their goalkeeper.”

Grant disputed BenÍtez’s contention that the fourth red card of Crouch’s career changed the game and backed the decision to send him off. The Israeli has been campaigning in recent weeks for referees to give greater protection to his players, particularly after John Terry was ruled out for up to two months after a bad tackle from Emmanuel Eboué, of Arsenal, on Sunday, and was satisfied with Atkinson’s action.

“I was near the touchline and it was a bad tackle on Mikel,” Grant said. “The priority for referees is to protect players and it was the right decision. I respect Rafa a lot. Maybe Rafa is angry, but it was a bad tackle. The number of fouls Liverpool made on Mikel in the first half was seven or eight.

“The priority is to protect the game and the players for everyone. I didn’t see a foul by Mikel, but Crouch didn’t need to do that. The tackles on John Terry and today were not necessary. Before the red card we were 1-0 up and dominating the game, so we deserved the result.”

Grant predicted a difficult two-leg tie against Everton next month, while the repeat of last season’s semi-final between Arsenal and Tottenham will present an intriguing test of how far Spurs have come under the new leadership of Juande Ramos.

“Everton are a very good team and it’s not easy to play them,” Grant said. “We drew against them last month, which was our only [Barclays Premier League] draw in the last three months.

“It won’t be easy for us, but it won’t be easy for them. There are no easy semi-finals unless it’s against a team from the second or third division. I’m optimistic by nature and feel we can win every competition. If you’re a coach you need to believe. If you don’t, you’re in the wrong job.”

Semi-final draw

Chelsea v Everton
Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur

First legs to be played week commencing Jan 7 second legs week commencing Jan 21

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