Benitez praises goalkeeping coach

Milan, Sep 23 (IANS) Napoli manager Rafael Benitez praised his goalkeeping coach for a great job following his side’s 2-1 over AC Milan at the San Siro.

Napoli goalkeeper Pepe Reina on Sunday became the first man to save a Mario Balotelli spot-kick. Benitez put that down to the preparation work of his goalkeeping coach, reports Xinhua.

“We have been putting together dossiers on penalty takers for years,” he said.

“Our goalkeeping coach does a great job, as he already did against Milan with Dudek in Istanbul. Of the five takers in that final, we knew where four of them would place their penalties.”

Benitez admitted it wasn’t Napoli’s best game of the season, but “a coach has to be happy” when winning at San Siro.

“We worked together as a team tonight and that was very important, as if you have that then the quality players get the chance to shine,” he said.

“Milan played well, so it wasn’t easy for us to counter Balotelli’s position between the lines. We needed to make adjustments and are at the start of this journey, so we need to improve many things, but winning away to Milan a coach has to be happy,” he said.