Valencia 0 Lyon 2

Gary Neville’s first game as a manager ended in defeat, Valencia’s fans heading for the exit with their team. It was not just that they were knocked out of the Champions League, slipping into the Europa League, where they could face Manchester United, but that they did not even give themselves a chance to progress. It was always likely to end but it was not supposed to end this way: with a 2-0 defeat to Lyon, a side that had not won a single game in the competition.

“If the result in Gent does not go our way… that’s life,” Neville had said. The result in Valencia did not go their way either. That’s life too – the life that Neville has chosen. It will be a hard one, he knows. Here, on a night when his goalkeeper Jaume Domènech prevented the scoreline being more damaging and one which ended with whistles, there was more evidence of it.

The task on the night was not an easy one, they knew. Valencia faced a Lyon team that knew they would finish bottom; there was not even Europa League football to play for. But Valencia had to win and hope Gent did not win again against Zenit St Petersburg. Already group winners, Zenit had travelled to Belgium without Hulk or Axel Witsel and with nothing to play for – except a reported bonus of 200,000 euros per player and the competition’s only 100% record.

As the players warmed up in Spain, Neville took up position on the touchline, standing in the top-right corner of his technical area. It was a position he occupied until the 36th minute of this game, when Maxwel Cornet curled in a wonderful shot from the edge of the area. It was the game’s opening goal, but not the night’s: over in Belgium, Gent had scored 15 minutes earlier. This was already slipping away.

Valencia had started well, too. Shkodran Mustafi hit the post with a header after eight minutes, a shot from João Cancelo was blocked a minute later and a minute after that Mustafi again reached a corner. Diving in, his header crashed off the bar and into the net but the goal was disallowed. Neville, hands in his pockets, spun back towards the bench. There were gestures for his players to spread the ball wide, opening up the pitch to the right. Mostly, though, Neville limited himself to watching.

He did not like what he saw; steadily, the impetus changed, the pace dropping. Domènech saved from Cornet, slipped through one on one. Then it happened; the giant screens on the west stand flashed up the score from Belgium, where Laurent Depoitre had put Gent into the lead. They were still digesting it, the stadium largely quiet, when Enzo Pérez was forced off. He joins an injury list nine men long. Almost immediately, Domènech made two more saves, from Sergi Darder and Corentin Tolisso.

That the stadium was quiet was especially significant as Neville had recalled how coming to the Mestalla as an away player was “horrible” and insisted that was something he wanted to recover. He had watched his new players draw 1-1 with Barcelona on Saturday night, the noise deafening. On Monday morning, the doors to Paterna were opened. Three thousand fans came. “It’s good to create that link and it motivates the players,” Neville said.

This was a little different, though. Paco Alcácer drew a similar save to that which Domènech had made but the quiet was punctured by occasional frustrated whistles. Lyon, a team with a single point until now, were the better side, allowed to travel a long way when they came forward, and with 10 minutes to go until half-time, Cornet scored. Momentarily, there was a roar to try to get Valencia back into this, an attempt to carry the side, but it was brief.

Neville sat down for the first time. He was up again a minute or two later but the task was huge now. Valencia needed three goals to go through: two here and another for Zenit in Belgium.

Álvaro Negredo was introduced as they sought them, finally returning from a 65-day ostracism imposed by the former manager Nuno Espírito Santo and drawing a huge roar from fans as he ran on. Valencia were going to go for this at least. There was intensity, a reaction. Cancelo and Fuego both took shots from the edge of the box, Negredo and Alcácer almost carved open a chance too. But there was only one real save from Anthony Lopes, a sense that there was little real chance… until, just as Lyon were preparing to take a corner, there was a huge roar. Artyom Dzyuba had scored in Belgium. One down, two more to go.

Both had to come here; Valencia had 25 minutes to get them. The volume rose. Cancelo almost caught out Lopes at the near post and from the corner Dani Parejo’s shot slipped just wide. The risk, though, was that on the break Lyon were finding space behind and that Domènech would not be able to save them every time.

So it proved. With 15 minutes to go and Pablo Piatti having just been sent on, Alexandre Lacazette was sent racing through to end it. As if to make sure, a moment later, Gent got a second.

(Guardian Service)