Balotelli had little impact on the game and was on the sideline at the start of the second half when Napoli scored their first goal of the night en route to a 2-0 win.

The Italian forward was called over for a jewelry infraction and while in the process of having it covered, his side conceded while down to 10 men.

Balotelli had some words for the officials immediately following the goal, and was eventually replaced in the 77th minute with Nice trailing 3-0 on aggregate.

Favre was reluctant to speak about Balotelli after the game, but told Mediaset Premium: "I don't want to talk about his performance. It was a negative performance and he should've come off a lot earlier."

The coach then reiterated that stance in a news conference, saying: "Mario did not play well and I should've replaced him earlier.

"I call it the way I see it, he wasn't good enough tonight. I don't know what happened on the first goal. I just saw there was something between Balotelli and the officials."

Nice will now enter the Europa League group stage, and Favre accepted the Ligue 1 club's new task while praising Napoli.

"The Europa League is the right level for Nice and it'll be a difficult tournament," he said. "Napoli are strong, they have been at the top for a while and playing the same style of football for years.

"Tactically and physically, they were fantastic tonight. From the moment we got them in the draw, I knew it was going to be very difficult.

"We didn't defend well enough and did better against Ajax in the last round. We were more open in the first half, but struggled to win back possession and then spark attacking moves."

Napoli boss Maurizio Sarri said his side deserved a spot in the Champions League group stage.

"We did well, because this is our path to achieve results. If we try to soak up pressure, we get into trouble, so we had to come here, defend with a high line, attack and I think we did it well," he told Mediaset Premium.

"The Champions League is the right reward for a team that achieved 86 points last season. It's too early to know if we can resolve those little defects we had last season, but it's always difficult to bridge the gap with the biggest clubs.

"We didn't even need to convince the players to begin preseason training early. This is a group that cares a lot about the squad and the shirt. It just took a 30-second phone call from the director, so all credit goes to the players.

"There are fears that when we have the game too much under control that we become lazy and risk throwing it away at the first opportunity. Only time will tell if we're able to resist that danger and fix the issue.

"It's not easy for other teams to get close to a side that has dominated the sport for years."