THE last time Rafael Benitez crossed swords with Roberto Mancini, the Italian announced his resignation moments after the final whistle.

And now the Liverpool manager is intent on turning the heat up on his Manchester City counterpart once again while easing the pressure on his own job.

The two sides meet at Eastlands tomorrow afternoon in a potentially pivotal showdown between the two leading contenders for fourth place and the final Champions League qualification berth.

While City have a one-point advantage with a game in hand, criticism of Mancini is building with the Italian having already lost more games than predecessor Mark Hughes this season since taking over shortly before Christmas.

And having attracted plenty of criticism of his own this season, Benitez believes the spotlight on Mancini will intensify if Liverpool end City’s unbeaten home record tomorrow.

“Maybe City fans are expecting their team to do better now and they will have a little bit of pressure,” says the Anfield manager.

“But I don’t know how much pressure they are under at the moment. I know everybody is expecting us to be in the top four. I have the belief and confidence we can be there. I prefer to think about us rather than them.

“It’s very important if we win, they will need to win more games and it will be more difficult for them. They will be under more pressure if we win, that’s for sure.

“We are in the position where it depends on us. If we succeed, they will have problems.”

Benitez guided Liverpool to a brace of victories over Mancini’s Inter Milan in the Champions League two years ago.

That failure in Europe prompted the Italian to announce his intention to depart at the end of the season. He rescinded the decision a day later, but was sacked that summer anyway to make way for Jose Mourinho.

It’s a scenario that could be repeated this year should Mancini fail to clinch the Champions League place City’s billionaire owners so desperately crave, despite having only been in the job a matter of months.

“He’s trying to do more or less similar things but he has different players and not had much time,” says Benitez. “Little by little we will see more from him and his ideas. He is trying, but he is still playing in a different way with the players he has.”