Michael Laudrup's men fancied their chances heading into the Group A encounter as Valencia have made a poor start to the season under new manager Miroslav Djukic, losing three of four games in La Liga.
And they got a massive boost on 10 minutes when defender Adil Rami saw red for hauling down Swansea striker Wilfried Bony, who had pounced on a defensive slip and was through on goal.
It did not take the visitors long to make the dismissal count as they took the lead on 14 minutes, when Michu broke down the left flank and pulled the ball back to strike partner Bony, who thumped a deflected left-footed strike past Che goalkeeper Vicente Guaita.
Bony sliced another shot wide on 39 minutes as the Swans controlled proceedings up to half-time, leading to a protest from a large number of home fans who deliberately missed the early stages of the second half.
During that time Bony steered a header from Nathan Dyer's cross over the crossbar and Michu's left-footed strike from 10 yards cleared the bar too.
But the fans were back in their seats to see Alejandro Pozuelo thread a fine throughball to Michu, who clinically slammed a right-footed shot past Guaita to make it 2-0 on 58 minutes.
It was 3-0 four minutes later as Jonathan de Guzman curled a stunning 30-yard free-kick into the top right-hand corner, and with Chico a rock at the heart of Swansea's defence, the visitors eased through the closing stages to keep a clean sheet on an historic night for the Welsh outfit.
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