Napoli manager Rafael Benitez elected to remain on the positive side after seeing his side defeated by Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday night.

A 3-1 loss to Bilbao saw Napoli's hopes of reaching the Champions League group stages end, but Benitez refused to single out individuals for the errors which led to goals for the hosts.

"We took the lead, but in a few minutes we made some important mistakes and lost control of the game. We made mistakes on all three goals," the Spaniard told Sport Mediaset.

"Those goals allowed Athletic to gain confidence and we lost ours. Do I blame anyone? No, mistakes happen. They are not normal, but they happened anyway. We had worked over the week on specifics like corners, but we still made mistakes and clearly we still have work to do.

"We said from the start Athletic were a tough team. We knew it could end up like this, we are all disappointed, but we have to look forward."

Napoli will now enter the Europa League group stage draw.