That toughness will travel well to the Ataturk Olympic stadium. "If we keep talking about favourites and they lose, then we want the same situation again," said Benítez. He also rebuffed Chelsea's complaints about last night's game as forcefully as Dietmar Hamann and the back four had repelled their unimaginative attacks.
There is a slight doubt as to whether García's shot crossed the line but the incident could have had even more devastating consequences for Chelsea if the referee Lubos Michel had interpreted it differently. "If we hadn't scored, maybe you would have seen a penalty and a red card," Benítez argued cogently.
The goal came when John Arne Riise broke on the left before Steven Gerrard, who had winkled possession away from Frank Lampard earlier in the move, fed Milan Baros. The Czech lobbed Petr Cech before being fouled by the charging goalkeeper. García rolled the ball towards the net and William Gallas's clearance was deemed to have come too late.
It was a scrappy moment and the fixture lacked the majesty of Liverpool's peak occasions of the 1980s. Benítez's team counted on grittily relentless defending and the substitute Djibril Cissé let Cech save when he should have relieved the pressure with a second goal. Had Didier Drogba converted a header in the 83rd minute or Eidur Gud johnsen not flashed a reckless shot wide in the sixth minute of stoppage time, Chelsea would have been bound for Istanbul instead.
All that is properly forgotten now. Liverpool are no longer the half-ignored club that has never won the Premiership and sweats even to finish fourth. This tournament has seen it embrace its former status. It is not sentimentality to declare that clubs can sometimes gain strength by drawing on the store of folk memories.
"Respect for your elders gives you character," the message read on a banner in the stands. It could have sounded like a fortune cookie but the four pictures of the European Cup beneath gave it resonance.
Considering the pride that Anfield took in the great displays of synchronised passing a generation ago there was a certain irony to the booing when Chelsea composed themselves by holding the ball but this was the moment for any Liverpool fan to be at his most partisan. The spectators were participants.
The men officially representing the club ensured that the fever did not fade. The defence was as obdurate as it had been at Stamford Bridge and, with Xabi Alonso suspended, Hamann came back from six weeks of injury to restore solidity. The German even had the hunger to charge in for a shot when a disappointing Lampard ran into trouble near his own penalty area in the 26th minute.
Chelsea were severely impaired. Arjen Robben was fit enough only to play as a substitute and Damien Duff was in no condition to be in the squad at all. Jose Mourinho, knocked out of a European tournament for the first time in his career, was confounded. "It's a problem we cannot solve," he had said of the potential loss of Robben and Duff. He will not be consoled by being proved right.
The transition from defence to full attack is laboured when Robben and Duff are not around to make the high-speed connection. A mundane if industrious Chelsea strove to grind Liverpool down last night because they lacked the edge to slice through them.
The clinical runs of Robben were badly missed before he came on for the closing 20 minutes. Nor did Chelsea then exploit lapses fully. When García was robbed of the ball by Lampard in the 24th minute, the ensuing cross by Joe Cole drifted unmolested through the six-yard box.
Benítez was heartened by the fact that the opposition were generally trying to force a goal rather than create one. Chelsea's attacking was not as concerted as Mourinho would expect, with too much hope invested instead in Drogba's willingness to battle with defenders.
After an hour Baros was relieved of his taxing role as Liverpool's lone striker and Cissé assumed those duties. It was a substitution that had been part of Benítez's schedule and the game also conformed to his plan.
All that might have changed in the 67th minute, when Lampard crashed a 30-yard free-kick that Jerzy Dudek had to match with a good save to his right for a corner. Robben and Mateja Kezman came on immediately but for once this was no suave tactical switch by Mourinho, just the doomed gamble of a desperate manager who saw Liverpool's fame coming back to searing life.