TWO defeats and a draw from its first three matches in Champions League Group A left Liverpool in the mire and needing a Houdini-like escape act to stay alive while facing Porto at home tonight.

The five-time European champion was left with no margin for error, making each of its remaining games must-win affairs.

Besiktas was thumped 8-0 at Anfield in the last round of fixtures, a Champions League record, but group leader Porto will pose a far greater threat to Liverpool’s hopes of reaching the knockout phase.

Liverpool was famously 3-0 down to AC Milan at halftime in the 2005 Champions League final in Istanbul only to claw themselves back to 3-3 and triumph on penalties.

That season the side also came through Group A but only after a dramatic night at Anfield where, again needing to score three goals, Steven Gerrard’s wonder strike four minutes from time against Olympiakos prevented its elimination.

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez, under pressure after appearing to fall out with the club’s American owners, can not afford his side to crash out this week, but the Spaniard appears to be up for the fight.

“The team has confidence,” Benitez said on Liverpool’s Web site this week. “We know it will be a difficult game because we know Porto is a team with quality so we have to do our job and see if it’s possible to play as well as we did against Besiktas.

“I am confident we can do it. We are team that can play under strain and stress. We have proved that.

“We are playing at Anfield —and we know we need to win to have a chance of progressing. So what we have to do is clear, and I believe we can do it.”

Liverpool will need another big performance from Gerrard, who shook off the hangover of his England despair with a majestic display in his side’s 3-0 league win at Newcastle United on Saturday.

Predicting who Benitez chooses to score the goals they need is a tough job. Fernando Torres wasted a host of chances Saturday and could make way for Peter Crouch, who scored twice in the thrashing of Besiktas.

Porto, which lost its only previous match at Anfield in 2001, will arrive in confident mood having established a four-point lead at the top of the Portuguese league.

A draw could be sufficient to send the side through, although the 2004 champion will be looking for the victory that will guarantee the side a top-two place.

Encouragingly for Liverpool, Porto has lost nine out of its 10 away matches against English opponents.(SD-Agencies)