RAFAEL Benitez has dismissed the financial implications should Liverpool fail in the Champions League and called for passion and cool heads from his players in the make-or-break showdown with Besiktas.

If Liverpool lose tonight at Anfield their chances of qualifying from Group A for the knockout stages will have gone.

Should they win they will have to beat Porto at Anfield at the end of the month and then go to Marseille in December and win again to be sure qualification.

That is the massive task facing boss Benitez and his side, with failure casting a giant shadow over a club who have enjoyed two Champions League finals in the past three years.

But suggestions that Liverpool's demise would cost the club between £17m and £20m and influence owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks over future decisions is not something Benitez claims to be worried about.

With striker Fernando Torres likely to return after a adductor strain, Benitez insists he is not under pressure and has great confidence in his squad.

He says: I am surprised by talk of money. I am being told we will lose £17 to £20m, but that is the money only the finalists get and only two clubs can do that.

We are planning to build a stadium costing £400m, so if we lose some money now it will be only £10m one way or the other.

That is the difference but don't forget what we have made in two runs to the final.'' Benitez revealed he has had recent talks with the American owners but that money was never the issue, only the future direction of the club.

Liverpool will get the go-ahead today from city planners for the revised Stanley Park stadium scheme and hope by the end of the day to also have a European triumph to celebrate.

Benitez said: The owners must be pleased with the way the team and the club is going, we are changing a lot of things.

There is progress. Maybe the problem is that when they arrived at the club we were beating Arsenal and then Barcelona, and then Chelsea. Maybe they thought it was easy and we could always be in a final, especially as we were then in another final, our second in three seasons.''