Napoli showing promise, says Benitez

Napoli head coach Rafael Benitez believes his side’s progression to the Coppa Italia final is a sign of the club’s promise.

The Stadio San Paolo outfit booked their place in Saturday’s showpiece with Fiorentina by coming from behind to beat Roma 5-3 over two legs back in February.

And Benitez feels that achievement, as well as a strong showing in Serie A in which they look set to finish third, indicates Napoli are beginning to fulfil their potential.

“Italy is a difficult country in terms of football because everybody likes football, everybody has passion and the style of football is you have to control the games and it is not easy,” the former Liverpool boss told Perform.

“So to be where we are at the moment, with more points than in the history of Napoli, plus to be in the final of the cup … I think it’s really important because it is part of the promise of this club.”

Napoli were hugely unfortunate to be eliminated on head-to-head record in the group stages of this season’s UEFA Champions League, scoring more points than six of the teams who actually progressed to the last 16.

And Benitez expressed concern that Italian clubs are struggling to cope with the tempo of their counterparts in other European nations.

“To be fair, I am a little bit disappointed.” he added. “We got 12 points this year and we couldn’t progress in the Champions League.

“Maybe the main difference is the tempo. When we talk about this we talk about the Premier League, high tempo, even the Spanish League, German league. Physically in Germany they are strong and they play with high tempo.

“In Spain you can see the pace of the game. And here in Italy, it’s more to control games and maybe after when you go to another level it is quite difficult.”