Soccer-Disappointed Neville remains upbeat after opening loss

By Michael Church VALENCIA, Spain, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Gary Neville is putting thoughts of an early return to Old Trafford to the back of his mind after kicking off his career as Valencia head coach with defeat in the Champions League on Wednesday. A 2-0 loss to Olympique Lyonnais, coupled with Ghent's victory over Zenit St Petersburg, means Valencia joined Manchester United in the Europa League. Neville, though, was not dwelling on the possibility of meeting his former team, choosing to focus on Sunday's La Liga clash with Eibar, the 40-year-old's first time in charge in a Spanish league fixture. "We will take the competition seriously, number one," said Neville of the Europa League, which has been won in four of the last six seasons by a Spanish club. "Who we draw and whether we play Manchester United is the last thing on my mind at this moment in time, I'm thinking about Sunday's game in the league, I'm thinking about recuperation, recovery and making sure the players are well prepared for Sunday," he told a news conference. "Honestly at this moment in time I couldn't care if we play Manchester United or anyone else in the next round of the Europa League. That's in the distance. I've got to think about tomorrow, the day after and doing my job and how that can affect the players on Sunday." Goals from Maxwell Cornet and Alexandre Lacazette condemned Valencia to a disappointing start to the Neville era, but the former England defender chose to look at the upside after only a few days in charge of the team. Valencia are eighth in the La Liga standings, level on 20 points with Sunday's opponents but ahead of Eibar on goal difference. "I'm positive about what I have seen in terms of the application," said Neville. "You see some of the effort put in by the players to try and recover the game, it was immense. "I'm positive with what I've seen in the last two days in training. I know that they understand certain things that we want to do, but tonight Lyon played a good game and I never felt Lyon wouldn't play a good game. I never imagined it would be any different. "Obviously, it's a disappointment tonight as well. It was my first game in front of these fans who in the second half were absolutely amazing when they were trying to lift the team. I could haven't asked for any more, but tonight we couldn't do it for them." (Editing by Ed Osmond)