Rafa - No Aquilani row

Aquilani: Set to start

SKY BET ODDS
Liverpool to win 2-1 17/2 or Aquilani to score last 14/1! Click here to bet.

Related links

Teams

• Liverpool

Players

• Steven Gerrard
• Fernando Torres

• More Players +

  • Alberto Aquilani

Also see

• Sky Sports experts
• Transfer Centre
• Fantasy Football
• Sky Sports Twitter

Rafa Benitez has played down reports of a row with Alberto Aquilani and confirmed he will make his full Liverpool debut on Wednesday.

The Italian international has yet to start at game for the club since joining from Roma for £20million in the summer.

Reports on Tuesday from Italy suggested that Aquilani was becoming frustrated at his lack of playing time, with his father claiming he has been fully recovered from his knee injury for over a month.

But Benitez insisted that there was no issue with Aquilani and he would be starting their final UEFA Champions League group stage clash against Fiorentina on Wednesday.

"I was talking with Alberto this morning and he was surprised too," Benitez said of the reports.

"Match fitness is something you can only improve on in games and we had the plan for him to play in reserve games, now is the right time - it is a Champions League game but we cannot qualify so we can play him from the beginning, he will have minutes and we will see how he reacts."

No Torres start

Benitez confirmed that Fernando Torres, who has been nursing a groin problem, would be involved but he will not be risked from the start.

"He [Torres] has been without playing for three-and-a-half, four weeks, so it would be a risk," said Benitez.

"We are starting with Aquilani after not too many games so at any point if you have to change it is important you have players who are out there who can play 90 minutes if you have a few who you are not sure about it could be trouble."

He did confirm that there are no issues over captain Steven Gerrard.

"Some players will need to play, some we will need to manage," he said.

"We will have a training session on Wednesday and analyse it but Gerrard can play, that is not a problem."