Neville thrilled with Valencia professionalism

Gary Neville praised the professionalism of his Valencia players following their return-leg triumph against Rapid Vienna on Thursday.

Valencia won 6-0 at home in the first leg and backed it up with a 4-0 away win against the 32-time Austrian champions to seal a 10-0 aggregate victory in their last-32 Europa League tie.

Second-half goals from Rodrigo, Sofiane Feghouli, Pablo Piatti and Ruben Vezo sealed their passage to the round of 16. 

While the tie was all but over after the first leg, Neville was pleased to see his side show an appropriate mentality to close out the second game with a win.

“I think the professionalism and the attitude and the mentality is something that I was most happy with tonight,” the Englishman told reporters.

“The performance was very good, but I think when you come into a game like this, the main question I asked the players today at lunchtime was about their professionalism, their mentality and their attitude towards the match.

“I said we had two jobs – one was to complete the tie, but I also wanted momentum to keep going and I wanted a good performance. 

“Thankfully tonight we got both. After the game, my words to them were – well done, eat and drink now!”

Valencia are on a run of four consecutive wins for the first time in 12 months but face a tough clash against Athletic Bilbao in La Liga on Sunday. 

“The big thing of today [was] to keep the momentum going. Four wins is good for us, but you recognise we have a big week – we have Bilbao, Malaga and Atletico Madrid – so it’s a big week for us but the confidence going into this week is good,” Neville added.

“All the players are playing, all the players are fresh, you’ve seen the players tonight play very, very well and in good form.”