Fabregas: ‘A wonderful night for Como, but must stay humble’ after 9-1 victory

TURIN, ITALY - OCTOBER 27: Cesc Fabregas, Manager of Como 1907, celebrates after the Serie A match between Torino FC and Como 1907 at Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino on October 27, 2026 in Turin, Italy. (Photo by Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images)

Cesc Fabregas admits the 9-1 win in Lens was ‘a wonderful night for Como, but we need to keep our feet on the ground’ as Champions League ambition starts to genuinely build.

The Lariani had won both their home games 4-1 against RB Leipzig and Manchester United, but lost 3-2 to Feyenoord, so everyone was waiting for their first ever Champions League away victory.

What they did not expect was for this to end 9-1 in Lens, with a Tasos Douvikas hat-trick, Nico Paz, Lucas Da Cunha, Marc-Oliver Kempf, Mattia Liberali, Martin Baturina and teenage debutant Matteo Papaccioli on target.

Fabregas keeping Como calm

It was noted that Como are fourth in the big Champions League table midway through the league phase of the competition.

“It is also our fourth ever Champions League game, so four is the key number here,” smiled Fabregas on Sky Sport Italia.

“I’m happy, this is football and everything went our way. The lads did well, now we have to prepare for a very important match on Sunday, the ninth in a run between breaks for international duty.”

This was the sixth consecutive victory in all competition for Como, who will face Scudetto holders Inter in Serie A this weekend.

It was a truly historic occasion, as no Italian team had ever scored even seven away goals in the Champions League or its predecessor the European Cup, let alone nine.

“It is a wonderful night for Como, for all our fans and many lads here who are at the start of their careers, but they need to keep their feet on the ground, be humble, keep learning and not think everything will go well from here on.

“They must keep working to continue these performances.”

Douvikas has also now scored in each of his four Champions League games and is the current top scorer in the tournament.

However, Lens scored with a volley on a corner kick, so are yet to keep a single clean sheet in the Champions League.

“I am angry over the goal we conceded, as we changed something in our defending with the three substitutions,” confessed Fabregas.

“Plus it was scored by a former teammate of mine, I played with Ruben Aguilar at Monaco, and I told him I’d never seen you score a goal like that before! It was honestly a great goal.”

These weren’t just nine goals, but almost all of them were well-worked team affairs playing out from the back with a string of passes, the kind of football that Fabregas wants to see.

Now they will play AEK Athens at home, Real Betis away, concluding with Paris Saint-Germain and then visiting Barcelona on January 27.

“When I saw the last two games were PSG and Barcelona, I thought we needed to get as many points as possible in the early fixtures. Nothing is impossible, but these are two teams who are of a superior level to the rest.

“There is a long way to go, those are the last two weeks in January, so all I am focused on is recovering the injured players, because we are missing so many in attack especially.

“There’s a final sprint on Sunday before we will try to rest as much as possible over the break for international duty,” noted Fabregas.

It was noted there are eight left-footed players, with five of them on the field together this evening, and this is something unusual when constructing a team, with only Arsenal perhaps packing the squad with that many.

“I have a weakness for left-footed players. I think they tend to be special, those I played with tended to have a class and technique different to the others, so when playing with or against those, that interested me.

“Having said that, we didn’t plan to get so many left-footed players, it just happened. The most important thing is that they understand the football we want to play here, and today everything went our way.

“I want the whole city of Como to enjoy this moment, but from tomorrow we begin preparing for Sunday.”