Lazio, Champions League in Udinese sights

Udinese defender Mehdi Benatia believes his side’s 2-1 win at Napoli shows the Italian club is capable of Champions League football.

Udinese inflicted a potentially fatal blow to Napoli’s Scudetto hopes on Sunday, handing AC Milan a six-point gap at the top of the Serie A table with five matches to play.

Swiss midfielder Gokhan Inler broke a goal-less deadlock 10 minutes into the second half, and Argentinean striker German Denis – known as ‘El Tanque’ – found the net four minutes later.

Napoli fought mightily to turn around the sudden two-goal deficit but could only manage a penalty to Giuseppe Mascara deep into injury time after Udinese defender Maurizio Domizzi saw red.

Udinese rise to within one point of the Champions League places with the win, and Benatia is eager to see his club displace Lazio in the top four before the season ends.

“We have to focus on one game at a time, but our objective is the Champions League,” the Morocco international said.

“We’re battling to finish fourth and we want to play very well in our last five matches.”

“We have achieved a great result. It isn’t easy to play against Napoli in the San Paolo stadium.”

“We put in a great performance and showed that we are a skilful team, for this reason I am very happy. We played very well in defence and didn’t even concede a penalty.”

“The whole team played very well today. I’m also very happy for Tanque (German Denis) who hasn’t played very often this season. When he plays he always does a good job.”