Rafa Benitez set for great Liverpool welcome at Anfield | The Sun ...

1 ISTANBUL 2005: No fan will ever forget Liverpool's fifth European crown, coming from 3-0 down to Milan at half-time to win on penalties.

2 FA CUP FINAL 2006: The Reds again came from behind with Steven Gerrard levelling against West Ham in stoppage time. Another trophy won in a shootout.

3 MID-MARCH 2009: Liverpool stun Real Madrid 4-0 in the Champions League and four days later beat Manchester United 4-1 at Old Trafford.

4 RAFA'S RANT: In January 2009 Rafa launched into his infamous 'facts' outburst, attacking Alex Ferguson for everything from his approach to refs to the fixture list. United won the title. Again.

The reception Benitez is guaranteed on Sunday will come as a thank you from Liverpool supporters forever grateful to the Spaniard for, above all, THAT night in Istanbul.

The supporters who remember the heady days when they were more serious challengers for the title, Champions League regulars and a genuine top-four side.

There are still a pocket of Rafaistas who hanker for his return. Still pine for the days when he was slugging it out with Fergie and Arsene at the top.

For the Anfield Benitez returns to for the first time since his six-year reign ended with a whimper in 2010, is a far different place to the one he left behind.

A club which, for all Brendan Rodgers is still in the early stages of rebuilding, is at least on a sound financial footing and not lurching ever closer to oblivion. And making progress on the field, too.

That's why Sunday's salute to the Kop has to be closure, rather than the opening of a door Benitez has left his foot in, desperate for the chance to take command once again.

As much as Benitez is convinced he will one day return as the Messiah, take a look at some of the other facts which accompanied his reign.

And we all know how much he loves facts. Of course he pulled off transfer masterstrokes tempting Xabi Alonso, Pepe Reina, Luis Garcia and Fernando Torres to Merseyside.

And it's no secret many senior Anfield staff, playing and otherwise, weren't exactly shedding a tear when he was chopped.

But do not let anyone tell you Liverpool haven't made progress under Rodgers, whose footballing ethos is gradually beginning to bear fruit.

The only way the Spaniard should be back on Merseyside is sitting in the Wirral mansion he kept on after being sacked.