Eden Hazard's goal five minutes from time when his free-kick sailed over the Liverpool defence and past a static Jose Reina inside the far post just when it seemed the visitors had weathered the storm.
But it could have been far worse had substitute Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's shot not hit the post and gone wide late on.
Benitez had called for a reaction from his players following Monday's disappointing defeat to Wigan and he felt they had done that.
"It was an improvement from the last game. The players' reaction has been very positive," said Benitez.
"I am disappointed with the result but really pleased with the effort of the players. They were fantastic today.
"It was against a good team on a difficult pitch. The reaction has been good.
"I think Lille started really well. We knew they had pace - you can watch videos but until you see them on the pitch you don't see the pace they have.
"It was difficult to stop them but little by little we had more control.
"When we had that control and were going forward we conceded the goal."
Despite conceding plenty of possession to their opponents Liverpool could easily have been 2-0 up at half-time after Ryan Babel and Fernando Torres were both denied by Lille keeper Mickael Landreau.
Benitez admitted that those missed opportunities cost them and could have put a completely different perspective on the match.
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