MAXWEL CORNET AND Alexandre Lacazette ruined Gary Neville’s debut as Valencia coach by firing Lyon to a 2-0 win at the Mestalla on Wednesday to end the Liga side’s Champions League ambitions.
Valencia still had a chance of reaching the knockout stages of the competition in Neville’s first game in charge after replacing Nuno Espirito Santo last week, but had to beat Lyon and hope Gent dropped points against Zenit.
They made an encouraging start to the match and Shkodran Mustafi came close to gifting his side lead twice in the opening stages of the game, even seeing a goal disallowed for an alleged foul.
Their European dreams were dealt a major blow, though, when Cornet opened the scoring with a stunning shot in the top corner.
Lyon continued to threaten on the counter-attack in the remainder of the game and eventually got a second when Lacazette found the net with a calm finish late in the second half.
Valencia now join Man United, Tottenham and Liverpool in the knock-out stages of the Europa League, with the draw for the last 32 taking place on Monday.
