Valencia boss Gary Neville believes his side suffered from their exertions in holding Barcelona at the weekend as they crashed out of the UEFA Champions League with a 2-0 home defeat to Olympique Lyonnais on Wednesday.
The Spanish side needed to win and hope KAA Gent dropped points at home to Zenit Saint Petersburg to qualify for the round-of-16, but they were stunned by an already eliminated Lyon side, who picked up their first European win of the season thanks to goals either side of halftime by Maxwel Cornet and Alexandre Lacazette.
Neville watched on the from the stands as a depleted Valencia battled back to seal a point against the European champions on Saturday thanks to Santi Mina’s late equalizer, but they did not reach the same heights in Neville’s debut as head coach as Lyon’s pace tore the hosts apart on the counterattack.
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“When you have 10 injuries and the same players play every three days, particularly these type of games — Sevilla, Barca, tonight versus Lyon — you get a deterioration of sharpness,” Neville said. “I know from my own playing career that to have the same level of energy every three days is difficult.”
The outcome could have been very different had Shkodran Mustafi’s early headed goal not been controversially ruled out, but Neville accepted his side had been second best, rather than point the finger at Slovenian referee Matej Jug.
“I’ve not seen the Mustafi goal yet, but players thought it was not a foul,” he said. “I can sit here and say if that counts, of course it is a different game. We can sit back and then counter... From that point of view, I used to whinge a lot as a player, but I won’t blame refs as a manager unless I feel I have to and tonight I don’t have to as Lyon did well in the game, so I won’t create headlines about the ref.”
A third-place finish in Group H means Valencia drop into the UEFA Europa League, just as Manchester United did 24 hours earlier.
Neville won 20 trophies with United over a 19-year playing career, but insisted a reunion with the Red Devils was the furthest thing from his mind ahead of his first La Liga game in charge away to Sociedad Deportiva Eibar on Sunday.
“We will take the competition seriously, No. 1. Who we draw, and whether we play Man United, is the last thing on my mind at moment,” he said. “I’m thinking about recovering for Sunday’s league game.”
In the other match in Group H, Gent qualified for the round-of-16 in their first ever Champions League campaign after goals from Laurent Depoitre and Danijel Milicevic gave the Belgian champions a 2-1 victory over already-qualified Zenit.
Gent knew a victory would be enough to go through and the hosts attacked from the kickoff. The tactic paid dividends in the 18th minute when Depoitre was left free by his marker Nicolas Lombaerts and glanced a high cross from Moses Simon beyond the reach of goalkeeper Yuri Lodygin.
Zenit got back into the game when Artim Dzyuba slotted home his sixth goal in as many games from close range in the 65th minute, but Milicevic used his superb shooting skills for the decisive goal 13 minutes later.
“It is a historic win for Gent and Belgium,” Milicevic said. “We were all waiting for this.”
Gent next face one of the world’s top sides after the winter break.
“If I can pick and choose, I go for Real Madrid,” Milicevic said.
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