Barcelona 7-0 Valencia
Gary Neville had to fend off questions about his Valencia future after his side slipped to a humiliating 7-0 defeat in the first leg of the Copa del Rey against Barcelona and insisted he will not resign.
Luis Suarez scored four and Lionel Messi bagged a hat-trick as Barca ran riot and left Neville's embryonic spell as Valencia manager in dire straits.
In addition to this humiliation at Camp Nou, Neville is still waiting for his first league win after eight attempts and the fans are beginning to turn on the former England international.
Neville was asked about his future three times in his post-match press conference in which he spoke about his "most painful night in football".
When asked outright if he intended to resign, Neville emphatically replied: "No."
A second line of questioning brought the response "next question" before a third attempt saw Neville say: "Next question. I have answered that before. I think I was very clear."
"This was one of my most painful nights in football. The scoreline is unacceptable." - Gary Neville
Although insisting he will battle on, Neville was not hiding after his side's embarrassing evening.
"This was one of my most painful nights in football," he said. "The scoreline is unacceptable. I have not enjoyed tonight. I won't sleep well tonight. I didn't like what I saw. The fans didn't deserve that. We have to recover incredibly quickly.
"This is one of the worst experiences I've ever gone through in football."
"Tonight for some reason we went back a big step. The Valencia fans did not deserve that and I feel most for them. It's their club and they are the ones that have been with this club all their lives and they're suffering very badly."
The former Manchester United defender insisted he had a "mechanism" for dealing with nights like this one and said he last experienced doubts 18 years ago during his playing career.
"My positivity is immovable in life but when you have moments like this you don't enjoy them at all," he said.
"I felt helpless, trying to change things in some way but knowing the tide of the game was against us.
"That scoreline is unacceptable. The reality of me is that I last had doubts as a player 18 years ago and from that moment onwards I developed a mechanism to deal with moments like this.
"I've just said to the players in the changing room now - 'forget (the defeat), everything in your mind now shifts to (Real) Betis.' Be absolutely clear, we have to deliver on Sunday."
Neville was asked what he would have made of that performance in his former role as a television pundit.
"I would have been critical of the performance," he said. "That is a really poor performance from us. Forget the scoreline, when you give the ball away in areas like we did against a team like that you leave yourself open to be counter-attacked."
Valencia sporting director Jesus Garcia Pitarch said it was one of the worst results in the club's history, but refused to discuss whether Neville's job is in danger.
"This day you can't explain," he said to television cameras after the game. "We must apologise to fans for one of worst results in our history.
"I never talk about tactical or team things. Everyone can draw opinion from what happened. Not the day to talk about the future."
Barely seven minutes had elapsed when Neymar stole the ball from a careless Andre Gomes in midfield, raced forward and passed to Suarez who rifled a shot across goal past Matthew Ryan.
Barca went two up when Sergio Busquets sent a long ball down the right which Aleix Vidal pulled back for Suarez to blast past Ryan.
Messi scored the third after a neat backheel from Neymar. On the stroke of halftime Barcelona were awarded a penalty when Shkodran Mustafi brought Messi down and was sent off but Neymar hit the post to leave the score 3-0 at the interval.
Russian Denis Cheryshev came on as a substitute for his Valencia debut just before Messi scored Barca's fourth in the 59th minute, taking a backheel from Suarez and weaving past two defenders.
Valencia had the ball in the net in the 69th minute after Cheryshev laid on for Rodrigo but it was ruled out for offside and Messi soon completed his hat-trick.
Suarez scored twice in the last seven minutes, a header from Adriano's cross and a shot from Arda Turan's square ball taking the Uruguayan's tally to nine goals in five matches and 35 for the season.
The second leg, in which Barcelona can afford to rest leading players, should be a mere formality in Valencia next Wednesday.
