Manchester United were beaten 4-1 by Como at the Giuseppe Sinigaglia stadium on the shores of Lake Como, leaving the English club without a win in their last seven matches across all competitions, a feat not achieved since 2015. The match was played on Wednesday in heavy rain, and the Italian club demonstrated how far they have come since being members of Serie D in 2008, playing in one of nine semi-professional regional leagues.
The hero of the match was Nico Paz, the 22-year-old Argentine international born in the Canary Islands, who joined from Real Madrid in 2024. Paz scored two goals and set up another, bringing his total direct contributions to goals to nine in eight appearances – four goals and five assists. Since the start of September, no one in Serie A has been directly involved in more goals in all competitions than him. He also became the youngest Argentine player to be involved in three goals in a single Champions League match since Lionel Messi against Bayern in April 2009.
Como have experienced a major rise since Cesc Fabregas joined the club as a player. In five seasons, the club has progressed from Serie B to the Champions League, and Fabregas, as manager in the 2025-26 season, led the team to fourth place. The club was returned to Serie D in 2017 because it failed to convince authorities of its financial stability, but today it plays in elite European competition. Uefa, despite such a rise from Serie B, does not intend to change its financial rules.
The Giuseppe Sinigaglia stadium has a capacity of 12,300 seats, and three-quarters of that space is uncovered. The city of Como itself has a population of just over 83,000, and 90 per cent of its population could fit into Milan’s San Siro. Lake Como is 29 miles long and 2.5 miles wide in certain sections. The club offers one-hour lake tours, followed by a 'pre-match by the lake' with hospitality, and there is a new club shop in the city selling a branded range of merchandise.
The club’s ownership structure includes London media company Sent Entertainment, owned by Indonesian billionaires Robert Budi Hartono and Michael Bambang Hartono. The Hartono brothers struck the deal in 2019, and had planned a television project with the idea of showing matches of young Indonesian players in their homeland. The popularity of Como is further confirmed by a photo of Lionel Messi’s son, Ciro, with his father in a replica club shirt.
In the other match, AC Milan suffered a shock defeat at Cagliari.
