The Spaniard was thrilled with the way in which the Partenopei battled back to beat their Czech opponents in light of a turbulent few weeks at the San Paolo

Napoli coach Rafa Benitez has voiced his delight with how his side responded to falling behind to Sparta Prague in Thursday’s 3-1 Europa League win.

Napoli found themselves trailing after 14 minutes in Naples, when Josef Husbauer opened the scoring for the Czech champions, but Sparta Prague were pegged back nine minutes later as Gonzalo Higuain converted a penalty, before a second-half double from Dries Mertens sealed maximum points for the Italian outfit.

While he feels there is still room for improvement, Benitez has stressed that he was pleased with Napoli’s response.

“I liked the positive reaction from the team,” Benitez told Sport Mediaset.

“After conceding that goal, we played a good game and it was all very positive.

“We could’ve done better defending corners, but the strikers created many scoring opportunities.

“Sparta Prague started with a 4-4-2 and pressed us a lot, so it wasn’t easy to control the ball.”

The win provided a much-needed boost for Napoli, who were surprisingly beaten 1-0 at home to Chievo in Serie A last week.