Como were playing their third Champions League game, and Nico Paz’s double helped them beat Manchester United 4-1
Michael Carrick’s side were behind inside two minutes and 3-0 down by the 57th, and their captain blamed the staff’s game plan afterwards.
Oct 22, 2026
Como had played two Champions League matches before Wednesday night. Manchester United have won the European Cup three times. On the shore of Lake Como the gap ran the other way: Cesc Fàbregas’s side were 3-0 up after 57 minutes, Jacobo Ramón headed a fourth on 76, and Joshua Zirkzee’s goal in stoppage time changed nothing.
United have three points from three league-phase games and have now gone seven matches without a win in all competitions. Michael Carrick has two wins from 11 games this season, and Bournemouth come to Old Trafford on Sunday.
Paz ran the game
The first goal came in the second minute. Diogo Dalot had just dragged a shot wide at the other end when Nico Paz, given room on the right by Harry Maguire, curled the ball into the top corner past Senne Lammens. Eight days earlier Atlético Madrid had needed 47 seconds. No English side had ever conceded inside two minutes in back-to-back major European games before.
Carrick changed things at half-time, sending on Amad Diallo and Carlos Baleba for Matheus Cunha and Andrey Santos. It took four minutes for Como to score again. Paz slipped Tasos Douvikas in behind, and Douvikas ran away from Matthijs de Ligt, who was making his first start in 325 days after a back injury. On 57 minutes Baleba turned into trouble in his own half, Paz took the ball off him and ran through to score his second.
Ramón is a centre-back, and he finished the best move of the night by heading in Kaiki Bruno’s cross from the left. Zirkzee, a substitute, scored a minute into added time. Como completed 594 passes, the most by any team against United in a Champions League match since Barcelona made 725 in April 2019.
Fernandes questions the plan
What was said afterwards may stay around longer than the score. Bruno Fernandes, United’s captain, told TNT Sports that “it’s a decision from the staff to not press man-to-man”, and that sitting off a side like Como only gives them confidence. He wanted United to be braver and press high. Asked whether the plan had cost them, he said: “That’s on the manager and on the staff to see it, it’s not on me.”
Carrick was told about those comments in his press conference. His answer was that United had pressed man-to-man for part of the second half and conceded from it, and then he went after the effort level: whatever the tactics, if players do not run back, “you ain’t going to win.”
He said he was “really angry”, and before he left the pitch he walked over to the United fans who had stayed to the end to apologise. Asked about his own future, he said: “It’s not about me right now.”
Six points for the debutants
United were missing nine players through injury, suspension or illness, which is how De Ligt ended up starting. They are 13th in the Premier League and were knocked out of the Carabao Cup last month. Como beat RB Leipzig 4-1 on their Champions League debut and lost 3-2 at Feyenoord, so they now have six points. They host Sassuolo in Serie A on Saturday.