The Chelsea first-team coach has become so exasperated by the Spaniard's repeated sniping that yesterday he took the unusual step of criticising an opponent on the eve of a match, accusing Benítez of distorting reality to hide the shortcomings of his own team.
Grant's defence of Didier Drogba may be as one-eyed as Benítez's condemnation, although his wider point has more merit. The Liverpool manager has become an expert in using pre-match mind games in an attempt to influence referees, claiming that the Ivory Coast striker "falls" and "slips" and citing a four-year video dossier proving as much.
"I will not speak about the players of Liverpool and what they do," Grant said. "I don't like it when others speak about mine. It's trying to distract things from the first leg. In the first half, the referee could have given a yellow card to Jamie Carragher to get him banned for this match. It could have been offside for Ryan Babel for their goal. He's trying to take attention from this.
"I don't think Didier dives at all. He's 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. Because he looks so powerful, defenders think there are other ways to stop him."
Benítez's criticisms of Roberto Rosetti, the Italian who will take charge of the match this evening, appeared to be an even more naked attempt to do just that, stopping short of questioning his impartiality. "I don't know whether you have seen the record of this one, but it's good," Benítez said of Rosetti. "The past six games in Europe, five the local team has won and one the away team, when it was Valencia against Chelsea. It's very curious. The referee has experience and he's not a bad referee, so if he knows he must be strong, he will be OK."
Grant gave these complaints short shrift, although of more concern to both managers is that Rosetti has booked 21 players in five Champions League matches this season, particularly because Carragher, Steven Gerrard and John Terry are one yellow card from a suspension that would rule them out of the final.
"Rafa can say whatever he wants. I say what I think," Grant said. "The referees are very good at this high level, even if they made some mistakes in the first leg against us. Ask him why he's saying that. The reason is clear."
Amid such verbal sparring, it is easy to forget that an intriguing spectacle awaits at Stamford Bridge this evening, with Chelsea's away goal putting greater onus on Liverpool to attack than has been their custom, shown by their failure to score in eight visits under Benítez. Given such a record, the Liverpool manager is considering a more attacking 4-4-2 formation, with Dirk Kuyt up front alongside Fernando Torres and Gerrard on the right of midfield.
Frank Lampard trained last night and indicated a desire to play despite the death of his mother last week. A final decision on whether to move Michael Essien to right back to accommodate Lampard's return will be left until today. The momentum is with Chelsea after last week's late equaliser and Saturday's stirring win over Manchester United, but progress in a Champions League semi-final is uncharted territory, as Grant conceded.
"On Saturday we wanted to show that we can play like champions, but this is another game," he said. "The dream of everybody is the Champions League. When you want to be a big club you need to win the Champions League. It's very important for the club to create history for Chelsea."
