Grant hits back at Benitez’s Drogba diver jibes

AVRAM GRANT last night hit back at Rafael Benitez’s criticisms of Didier Drogba and suggested the Liverpool manager was attempting to influence the officials in this evening’s Champions League decider at Stamford Bridge.

Benitez claimed last weekend that Drogba routinely conned referees by falling over, despite his obvious physical strength.

He claimed to have compiled a dossier of four years’ worth of incidents involving the Ivory Coast international and advised tonight’s referee, Italy’s Roberto Rosetti, to be on guard against his wiles.

The Spaniard’s criticisms drew an unusually spiky response from Grant, who suggested Drogba was not receiving enough protection from officials.

“I don’t think he is a diver at all and I don’t like it when other managers speak about my players — I do not speak about Liverpool players,” he said. “I think he is trying to distract things, to affect the referee so he does not do his job.

“Didier’s a good player, a powerful player, so the referee needs to look at what happens to him more. If you look at the video and see what Carragher did to him in the first game, the referee was very polite on him.”

Frank Lampard, who has only just returned from compassionate leave following the death of his mother, trained at Stamford Bridge last night but is not expected to start against the Merseysiders.