Carragher acclaims brilliant Benitez
Man-of-the-match Carragher personified the defiant spirit that ensured Liverpool clung on for a goalless draw in the cauldron that was the Stadio Delle Alpi on Wednesday, to dump Juventus out.
But Carragher hailed Liverpool's Spanish manager and claimed that the pressures were now all on Chelsea - "a team who can buy anyone in the world."
Carragher claims that Benitez out-thought Fabio Capello in Turin, and says: "Really the success is down to the manager's tactics.
"He has played some different formations in Europe and always comes up trumps and he was up against a manager like Fabio Capello.
"The boss didn't just want us to sit back and defend, because that invites pressure. He wants us to defend higher up the pitch because they then have to play further away from our goal.
"Maybe under Gerald Houllier we were encouraged to defend a little too deep at times, but now we are asked to push out more.
"We were down to the bare bones, but that makes you come together more and be a bit stronger.
And Carragher believes that although Liverpool have already lost three times to Chelsea this season, the semi-final could be a different story.
He said: "It's going to be a great semi-final now. We have played Chelsea three times this season and lost all three but every one of those games has been very tight.
"They deserved to beat us at Stamford Bridge, but the league game at our place and then the Carling Cup Final could have gone either way.
"At the start of the season we probably felt it would be an achievement to get through the group stages under a new manager, as we are still building. The aim was to get through those qualifying stages and see where we went from there.
"But at the moment we have got to the semi-finals, that's how far we have come under Rafael Benitez. But we are not thinking yet, though, about the final because we know we are up against a really good side in Chelsea."
He added: "They are the most expensive team in the world, and rightly so they should be the favourites. But that could well put a bit more pressure on them."
On the match itself, he added: "I'm delighted, it's what you're in the game for to be involved in matches of that importance.
"But don't forget we have three very important league games before we go down to play Chelsea in the first leg (April 27), and those matches must be won to make sure we are in this competition again next season.
"You can see how delighted the fans and players are after such a performance. It means so much, so it's imperative that we are in this competition again next season to continue the progress we are making.
"People kept saying that we needed to score, but that wasn't the case. A goal would have made it more difficult for them but we ended up winning the tie because of our consistent defending and the way we stopped them playing which maybe some would not have felt we could do."
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