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Soccer-Valencia defeat leaves Neville still without La Liga win

By Tim Hanlon Jan 31 (Reuters) - Valencia manager Gary Neville's wait for a first La Liga win continued after a 1-0 home defeat by lowly Sporting Gijon on Sunday. Former England and Manchester United defender Neville, who took on his first head coaching job at the start of December, has gone eight league games without a victory. Valencia have qualified for the semi-finals of the King's Cup and face Barcelona on Wednesday, but in the league they have slipped to 12th place with 25 points from 22 games. An Antonio Sanabria penalty following a trip by Danilo on Jony Rodriguez gave Sporting the lead after 50 minutes. Alvaro Negredo missed a series of chances for the hosts and went closest to scoring with a header after 57 minutes that came back off a post. Third placed Real Madrid, seven points behind leaders Barcelona, host Espanyol late on Sunday (1930GMT). (Reporting by Tim Hanlon in Barcelona, editing by Justin Palmer)