RAFAEL BENITEZ believes his World Cup-bound stars can now relax and produce their best football for Liverpool.

The Merseysiders face promoted Burnley today for the first time in the league for 33 years, with their Champions League schedule starting on Wednesday with a home clash with Hungarian champions Debrecen.

Benitez is relieved that this demanding programme comes with the knowledge that his English, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Brazilian players know they are on their way to next summer’s World Cup finals in South Africa.

In all, Liverpool have as many as 16 players fighting to reach the finals from the European groups – plus Argentina skipper Javier Mascherano if his country manage to salvage their qualifying hopes.

But Benitez’s biggest stars – Steven Gerrard, Glen Johnson, Jose Reina, Fernando Torres, Albert Riera, Lucas and Dirk Kuyt – know their countries have already booked their passage.

Benitez said: “I am not sure now what various international managers will do with their players in final qualifying games now they are sure of going to the finals.

“They may try to rest players, experiment or plan, but for sure everyone will now be relaxed and not playing under such pressure.

“Now that the English and Spanish players have qualified this week it should make things easier for us.

“At least mentally they do not need to worry any more about their qualification.

“They need to go to internationals now and enjoy the situation, and that will be another plus point for us because there are no distractions with regard to qualifying or not now. They are there.”

Several more of Liverpool’s squad are on the point of qualifying. Daniel Agger (Denmark), Martin Skrtel (Slovakia), Philipp Degen (Switzerland), Alberto Aquilani (Italy) all see their nations top of their groups, while Sotirios Kyrgiakos (Greece) and Yossi Benayoun (Israel) have chances of reaching the play-offs.

Italian full-back Andrea Dossena, Dutch winger Ryan Babel and Argentinian full-back Emiliano Insua could also find themselves involved in the tournament.

For today’s game with Burnley, Benitez again has to contend with his internationals arriving back late from playing for their countries – a situation that always causes problems for the weekend matches.

Benitez, who hopes to have full-back Fabio Aurelio in his squad for the first time this season after a knee operation, said: “We think we can now manage a situation better when players return from international duty. But I will tell you on Sunday if it is successful.

“A lot of players have been away, some in many different parts of the world.

Some will return within 24 hours, others less than a few hours before the next match.

“It is not unique to us, all top clubs have the problem, but we have tried to handle it better. It is a reality of our situation.

“It can be difficult, but hopefully we have learned and we have been winning more games after such weeks.

“We changed things. We trained in the evenings so that players could be together more, if they returned on a Friday we trained in the evening.

“First you let them talk about their games. Then they must focus on the next game.” And that means building on the 3-2 victory at Bolton a fortnight ago that got Liverpool’s season back on track.

Benitez said: “The win was good for us, and for the confidence of the team after we had lost two matches from our first three league games.

“You need character in that situation, and that is what we showed. We had not been at our best for a lot of reasons, but that result showed we were getting closer to what we want.

“Some players needed to improve physically or with match fitness, it is just a question of time.”

Benitez also reveals that former Roma midfielder Aquilani could be back in training soon, having signed for Liverpool in the summer while still recovering from a knee operation. Benitez said: “Aquilani has improved, he has progressed in the way that we expected and now maybe in two or three weeks we will see him training.”

The Liverpool manager has also made it clear he does not want Babel going on loan to Ajax during the next transfer window, the Dutchman having expressed that wish to improve his chances of going to the World Cup finals.+