Como’s 4-1 win over Manchester United will stand as one of the defining nights of the club’s modern rise, but Cesc Fabregas was already looking beyond the celebration. His side overwhelmed Michael Carrick’s United for long spells and produced a result that once would have seemed implausible outside a video game.
For Como, it was their greatest achievement to date. Manchester United have now conceded four goals in a Champions League match on only four occasions, underlining the scale of the occasion for the biancoblù and their supporters.
Fabregas urged the city to enjoy the moment, hoping Como’s youngest fans would arrive at school the following day wearing the club shirt with pride. He singled out Da Cunha for an exceptional display, while insisting that the evening belonged to the collective rather than one performer.
“Everything we had prepared came off,” Fabregas said. “Every player gave everything.”
A night to celebrate, then a return to work
The Como coach was careful not to allow a landmark European result to alter the demands of the season. He described the victory as a special night but stressed that the club remains at the beginning of a wider journey.
Many of Como’s players were appearing in one of their first Champions League matches, and Fabregas felt that their confidence was central to overcoming the occasion and the stature of the opposition. United’s name, he noted, carries its own weight, yet his players met that challenge with conviction.
He also pointed to the identity Como are attempting to establish. The coach took particular satisfaction from the team’s commitment to their work without the ball, saying the players continued to press until the final stages.
Questions from English reporters about whether Como played a more European and less traditionally Serie A style did not move him. Fabregas replied that results offered their own answer, recalling that Como had also scored four against Genoa. Not every match permits such a scoreline, he added, especially with nine new players still learning the team’s mechanisms.
Trust inside the Como project
Fabregas linked the performance to the long-term project that persuaded him to join Como. He said he had initially retained the mentality of a player and expected to complete his playing career, before the opportunity to work with the Primavera changed his path.
He insisted that vision alone does not guarantee success, and credited club figures Suwarso and Ludi for their support. Fabregas said they share his football ideas, understand his work and have built a relationship based on mutual trust through both positive and difficult moments.
He reflected too on his own playing days under Pep Guardiola, recalling that he was happy even when used as a striker. Fabregas said that he and Lionel Messi were allowed freedom to find unoccupied areas while other teammates maintained the positional structure.
That freedom is now part of a broader coaching perspective. The win over United brought satisfaction, he said, but the real test is reproducing the same standards when Como play again on Saturday.
Perspective for Carrick and a self-critical ending
The result increased scrutiny on Carrick, whose position at Manchester United has become increasingly uncertain. Fabregas, once Carrick’s opponent, offered a sympathetic view of a coach’s role.
He recalled facing United for the first time on 8 August 2004, when he was 17, describing that first experience as one of the finest feelings of his life. Playing, he said, remains more emotional than coaching, and he encouraged his own players to enjoy such occasions fully because missed commitment can bring regret later.
Fabregas also argued that coaches are too often judged as if they can transform everything within two weeks. The modern game, he said, demands instant answers when development requires patience.
Even after a 4-1 victory, he found one detail to regret. He accepted responsibility for Como easing off late in the match, revealing that he had told Douvikas to run less. That instruction lowered the team’s block, in Fabregas’s view, and contributed to United’s goal.
It was a small imperfection in an extraordinary evening, but it captured the message from the Como bench: celebrate the result, preserve the standards, and begin again when Saturday arrives.
