After the fanfare that greeted his arrival at Valencia, Gary Neville’s first game in charge of the Spanish club turned out to be somewhat of a let down.
Neville’s side fell to a disappointing 2-0 defeat to at home to Lyon as Valencia crashed out of the Champions League last night.
Valencia started well as Shkodran Mustafi hit the post and then controversially had goal disallowed after he was deemed to have committed a foul before scoring with a terrific diving header.
However Lyon”s Maxwell Cornet put the French side ahead seven minutes before half time as he finished off a superb counter attack by curling the ball past the helpless Domenech Sánchez.
Lyon then doubled their advantage midway through the second half as Alexandre Lacazette slotted the ball home after the French side had once again caught the Valencia defense flat footed with a counter attack.
Last night’s defeat means that Neville’s Valencia will be joining his former club Manchester United in the knockout stages of the Europa League.
After the game, Neville told reporters, “It’s disappointing, obviously we wanted to win the game. But you have to take defeat on the chin, even if you understand that it is unacceptable to lose a game at the Mestalla.”
“We showed a lot of spirit and fight but didn’t really create enough chances to win the game,”
