Como rout Lens 9-1 to set Champions League records in historic debut campaign

Como produced a 9-1 victory over Lens in the Champions League, a result reported by MARCA that the Spanish outlet described as a legendary night for the Italian club and for Italian football as a whole. The win lifted Cesc Fàbregas's side provisionally into fourth place in the competition, the same position it occupies in Serie A, and made it the second-highest scoring team in the Champions League with 19 goals in four matches. Those goals came as four against Leipzig, four against Manchester United, one against Feyenoord and nine against Lens. Only Luis Enrique's Paris Saint-Germain has scored more, according to the report.

The scale of the achievement is framed by Como's recent history. MARCA noted that qualifying for the competition last season was already historic for a club that was playing in Italy's third tier just six seasons ago, and that this is the club's first participation in the Champions League. The report also placed the result in a broader context: the club represents a city of roughly 80,000 inhabitants, and the Lens match was Como's sixth consecutive victory.

Several records fell in the Lens game, per MARCA. Como became the first Italian team in the history of the European Cup/UEFA Champions League to score at least seven goals away from home, and it went on to reach nine. At European level, the report said the result equalled Bayern Munich's 9-2 win over Dinamo Zagreb on 17 September 2024 and made Como the team with the largest away victory in Champions League history. The report did not specify the venue beyond describing the win as an away result.

Tasos Douvikas, the former Celta Vigo forward for whom Como paid a reported 13 million euros, scored a hat-trick against Lens. With six goals in his first four Champions League appearances, MARCA reported that he stood as the competition's top scorer ahead of Erling Haaland. Citing OPTA, the outlet added that Douvikas is the second player to score in each of his team's first four matches in the history of the UEFA Champions League since the competition adopted its current name, after Alessandro Del Piero, who scored in the first five matchdays of the 1995/96 edition.

Mattia Liberali, described by MARCA as a talent Como persuaded to join its project despite interest from Milan, the club where he had trained, scored in the 58th minute. Four minutes later he set another record: at 19 years, six months and 29 days, he became the youngest Italian to score in the Champions League since Mario Balotelli in 2009, according to the report. That mark lasted only until Matteo Papaccioli, born in 2008, came on. In stoppage time, a precise through ball from Liberali led to a goal by Papaccioli, who took the record from his teammate within minutes, the report said.

Nico Paz was another central figure, with three goals and five assists. MARCA reported that Paz currently has the most direct goal involvements in the entire Champions League, with Douvikas second on six goals and one assist, ahead of Harry Kane, Lamine Yamal, Haaland and other leading players. The outlet also highlighted the circumstances facing Fàbregas: the squad is depleted, with Chalobah, described as an undisputed defensive starter, among the absentees, along with more than half of the attacking options in Assane Diao, Jesús Rodríguez, Jayden Addai and Moise Kean. Despite that, the report said, the Catalan coach fielded a line-up with four or five midfielders capable of swapping positions, attacking space, combining in short passing and scoring freely. MARCA concluded that for one night Como was the biggest spectacle in European football, having not been the biggest spectacle in Italian football. The report's records and statistics are attributed to MARCA and, where cited, OPTA; they were not presented as official confirmation.