I watched the game last night and it was my view that Napoli were a little unfortunate not to go through to be totally honest. Apparantly they dominated the first game and conceded an offside goal, while last night they were clearly the better side but just couldn't score. The only two comments I would make visa vis the management of Benitez is that clearly they are a decent team and if he's brought those players together (I've no idea if they were there when he got there or he bought them, can't be bothered to check) he hasn't done a bad job of building. Secondly, no doubt he will know why the fella with the mohican and the little pacy left winger were on the bench until the hour mark, but both looked like better quality players by quite a distance to the ones they replaced through my eyes anyway. I always had the suspicion that Benitez was a little cuter than was necessary on occasion when it came to team selection when managing us, and perhaps this was an example of that.
On the commentary though it sounds as if they still have a good chance of finishing third in the league. They still have to play Lazio who are one above them, and their game with Juventus ought to be fairly straightforward as the stripes have already p!ssed the league and have a Champions League final to rest for. Third won't be any reason to get overly excited given they had finished 2nd in the two seasons prior to his arrival (and challenged for the title), but at least it'll be something.
Football turns on fine margins, and although they were a bit unlucky as I said I think last nights defeat will mean that his tenure at Napoli can be looked upon AT BEST, as reasonable. Should they finish outside the top three though, it would probably be looked upon as being a fair bit worse than that.
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