Benitez happy with Napoli progress

Napoli coach Rafael Benitez was hugely encouraged by his team’s performance in a 1-0 victory over Barcelona on Wednesday.

Blerim Dzemaili scored the only goal of the friendly match in Vienna when his powerful half-volley was fumbled by debutant goalkeeper Claudio Bravo 10 minutes from time.

And Benitez, who made 10 second-half substitutions, is pleased with how his team are shaping up ahead of the new season.

“Winning against Barcelona is always a good result,” he told the club’s official website. “Now the guys deserve all the compliments.

“But beyond the individuals it is the team performance that I liked. We did very well both offensively and defensively, and this is a nice result after this first phase of work.

“I had important signals in every sense, this means that we are working well and we have to continue like this.

“We need to better manage this group and then see if we can improve it.”