Benítez 'proud' of Napoli's nearly campaign

Rafael Benítez, Napoli coach
This game will increase our confidence, this is the key. Here at Napoli we are trying to develop something and the boys showed we are on the right track. We must be proud of what we have done so far.

We should have scored our first goal earlier in order to have more time to push. Five minutes before the final whistle it was hard to say "keep pushing" because Marseille and Dortmund were drawing 1-1 and Arsenal are dangerous on the counter and could have scored. In any case, the team made a tremendous effort, we deserved to win and qualification would have been well-deserved.

Arsène Wenger, Arsenal manager
We're happy to be through. We took the game seriously and we were focused, but perhaps we dropped physically in the second half. They played very well and we were on edge, but in the end we're happy to get through.

It's a hard situation in football when you have to decide whether to attack or defend. As long as we didn't score they had a chance. Perhaps Dortmund being level for as long as they were caused them to relax a bit too – who knows?

When you win the group you know you have done a good job. Coming second means you have to hope for a good draw. I feel sorry for Napoli. It was a difficult group and three teams have finished on 12 points. One team had to be knocked out, but they can feel very hard done by to be that team.