• Champions League

Benitez takes positives despite Chelsea exit

Rafael Benitez moved to take the positives from Chelsea's elimination from the Champions League, with the 6-1 win over Nordsjaelland "confirmation" of his belief in the players.

Chelsea became the first side in the history of the Champions League to crash out of the group stage the season after winning the tournament. The damage was done earlier in the competition - with Benitez being in charge only for the final game.

The win over Nordsjaelland was his first in charge of Chelsea, following two draws and a defeat, and he feels the Blues can now look forward.

"When you win the place is positive," Benitez told Sky Sports. "The way we won, creating a lot of chances is really good. But the bad news is we have to play in another competition.

"At least the team showed the quality. We could see the intensity and this is the confirmation of what I have seen in training sessions.

"We are disappointed as we did not progress but we have to think about Sunderland (in the Premier League at the weekend) and the Europa League which is a challenge."

"The game was so good today. We could see a lot of positives for the future. We pressed well, created chances and scored goals."

Looking ahead to the Europa League, Benitez said: "I knew when I came here this could happen. We have to think about the Europa League. If you go to the semi-final or the final it is a great competition, We hope to be there."

Fernando Torres ended his barren run with two goals and Benitez said: "We talked about him having to score. If we create chances he will scored goals."

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