The home side's objective this evening is to ensure they do not suffer the ignominy they inflicted on Milan at the Ataturk Stadium. No team has ever recovered from a three-goal deficit at home in the first game of a two-legged Champions League tie and so prone were PSV Eindhoven at the Philips Stadium last week that history is unlikely to be made at Anfield in the return. Nonetheless Benítez has sat his squad down to recall the giddy evening in Turkey, when Liverpool trailed 3-0 at the interval only to draw level before the hour-mark, and warned them of the consequences of complacency. Surrendering this tie is unthinkable.
"Ronald Koeman will try to motivate his players by telling them that, if they can get an early goal, then you never know what might happen," said Benítez. "If I was in the same situation, I would say the same. In Istanbul I said at half-time that, if we scored an early goal, things could change. Then we scored another two minutes later. That is the key if you want to recover a scoreline like this. But my players understand that. We are not stupid. We know we are close to the semi-finals but it is easy to talk about it now and warn against complacency. You have to be right on the pitch. I think they will be ready.
"In some ways this is a strange situation for me. Games like this aren't easy for a manager because you have a big temptation to do different things, try different teams. We will try and use our squad but we must also be careful. The team we put out will still be a very good team - players with quality and the right mentality - because we have players at the club who are desperate to play games. Maybe these are the right players for this situation."
Any means of conjuring hunger and energy from a squad well aware they have one foot in the semi-finals - Koeman, after all, declared he would have to be "from a different planet" to convince his side they can still progress - will be needed tonight. Some regulars, most probably Steven Gerrard and Javier Mascherano, are likely to begin on the bench, with the latter one booking away from a suspension. Those who replace them will be eager to impress and this could be a European farewell at Anfield for Robbie Fowler.
Any fears of a revival by the Dutch side should prompt Benítez to send out his first-choice centre-backs with Jamie Carragher and Daniel Agger having established themselves at the heart of Liverpool's defence. Where the former is abrasive and vocal on and off the pitch, Agger has proved more reserved, though he has quickly found his feet in his first full season in the English game. Any suggestions that the 22-year-old is feeling leggy at this stage of a long campaign were rebutted yesterday.
"Mentally I am quite strong. I don't feel tired at all in that respect and physically I don't feel the number of games are affecting me too much," he said. "Even at Brondby last season we had Uefa Cup games so there have been quite a few matches but my strong mentality has helped me adapt certainly. You have to be mentally strong to be a footballer, that's how it is these days, and you always have to be focused.
"There's no way we think this tie is over. But there is confidence in this squad. Even before the Barcelona tie we had the feeling we could beat anyone. That confidence is there in this team. We go into every game confident we can win and the manager inspires us. That's what he's there for. "
PSV arrive still smarting from last week's defeat and with domestic league toils on their minds. PSV may still lead the table but they have not won in four top-flight games, slipping 2-1 to NEC Nijmegen at the weekend, and have been ravaged by injury with the former Liverpool full-back Jan Kromkamp, the Brazilian defender Alex and Edison Méndez, the midfielder whose goal defeated Arsenal in the first leg, all absent tonight.
In the trying circumstances Patrick Kluivert's assessment of Liverpool was chilling. "I wasn't surprised by Liverpool's quality in the first leg," said the former Dutch international striker. "Individually they are good but they also seem to be better than the sum of their parts.
"They have some good players, and in Steven Gerrard a really excellent player, but more than that they were really functioning as a team. If a team clicks like that it feels like there are 12 men on the pitch. To me they look like the Champions League winners this year. They definitely have the quality to go all the way."
Such an assessment would normally be construed as mind games but, with PSV's season unravelling, they are in no fit state to indulge.