Rafael Benitez refuses to place blame on Gonzalo Higuain

Rafael Benitez has refused to place any blame on Gonzalo Higuain after Napoli suffered disappointment in the Europa League semi-finals.

A 1-0 victory in the second leg on Thursday night handed Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk a 2-1 aggregate success and a spot in the final against Sevilla, but Benitez was quick to defend Higuain, who missed a number of good opportunities for the visitors.

"It isn't important to talk about any mistakes Higuain made," the Napoli boss told Mediaset. "We win and lose together.

"We had big chances both in the first and second half but we couldn't score. We deserved more.

"Their goal was strange but that's not important now; they are in the Europa League final and Napoli are not."

Napoli return to action against Cesena on Monday.