Como beat Manchester United 4-1, taking themselves sixth in the Champions League table standings after three games played.
Cesc Fabregas’ side came out the gates fast, scoring just two minutes into the game, as Nico Paz curled on beautifully into the far corner to make it 1-0.
While Manchester United managed to get in at the break just 1-0 down, Michael Carrick‘s side likely felt a little bit lucky, as Como dominated proceedings in the first half, holding 64% of the ball and limiting United to just three shots and 0.10 expected goals.
But once again, despite Manchester United coming out the blocks with a little more intensity to start the second half, Como struck with their second goal of the game in the 49th minute, just four minutes after the restart, as Anastasios Douvikas made it 2-0.
Paz continued to glisten in the game, after setting up Douvikas for the second, he added the third, his second of the night, making it 3-0 in the 57th minute.
Jacobo Ramon added a fourth in the 76th minute, really putting the game to bed before Joshua Zirkzee added a consolation goal to make it 4-1, securing an impressive and dominant victory for just their second ever Champions League win.
In this article, we’ll cover
Como’s dynamism
Fabregas has created a brilliant network within his Como side, which has been built through time and coaching, leading to a system that feels connected in their understanding.
The timing of each player’s movements to come towards play in the build up, offering themselves for a bounce pass and arriving for third man combinations is key, always ensuring players have multiple passing options to evade pressure and find their way out.
A squad built to the philosophy of Fabregas’ principles is key to this, with the likes of Maxi Perrone, Luis Milla, Lucas Da Cunha and Paz, who all have the technical capacity to play in all areas of the pitch, connect with their teammates and find solutions to retain possession, give their team control and set the rhythm of the game.
By creating a system where players understand their roles and their teammates roles/responsibilities, it also allows Como to rotate fluidly, in order to destabilise the opposition press and cause tensions within their defensive block.
Similarly to PSG, where Luis Enrique has created a system where everyone works for each other and understands their responsibility depending on their positioning on the pitch at any moment, Fabregas’ Como resembles a similar set of ideas.
Man Utd’s struggling press
Manchester United have once again struggled to compete physically, this time against Como, just as they did against Atletico Madrid last week, with players arriving late into their duels and a lack of repeated high intensity actions to put Como under pressure in their build.
When it comes to the high press, Carrick has set his side out to jump down their right-hand side, with Bryan Mbeumo jumping to pressure Ramon at left centre-back, while Diogo Dalot jumping onto Alex Valle at left-back, with Matthijs De Ligt shifting across to cover Baturina on the left.
But due to a mixture of Como’s brilliance using their quality in the build up to progress through the thirds and Manchester United’s struggles to get reliable pressure on the ball, Fabregas’ side have often forced Carrick’s side back, taking control of the game and allowing them to begin picking holes in their defensive shape.
Como did this in a number of ways, using their full-backs in deeper positions initially before moving forwards, looking to stretch the block horizontally and open spaces inside to progress through the lines.
That’s where the movement of Paz and Cunha can be exploited, as the pair have rotated nicely on that right side, creating tensions for Harry Maguire, Noussair Mazraoui and Andrey Santos.
With Perrone at the base, Milla drifting from low positions in a double pivot into higher positions towards the left and Paz operating in that right-side pocket, Como were able to overload Manchester United’s double pivot 3v2.
And it was Paz who made the difference, getting himself into pockets of space between the Manchester United midfield and defensive line and providing the moments of quality to decide the game.
The Nico Paz show
We had the Desire Doue show last night, tonight we had the Paz show, scoring twice, picking up an assist and having his prints all over Como’s impressive display.
He opened the scoring after just two minutes, arriving from behind between Matheus Cunha and Maguire, where he was able to take his first touch to face up against Maguire towards Manchester United’s goal.
From there, Paz used his left-foot to cut back against his momentum inside, then wrapping his foot around the ball with his second touch, into the far corner past Senne Lammens.
For the second goal, again Paz was able to float between Manchester United’s midfield and defensive lines, as Como used a third man combination to access the Argentine in this zone, who then slotted a lovely pass into the path of Douvikas who made it two.
And to cap off his display, Paz won the ball back in the press against Carlos Baleba, bursting away down the right and going all the way, carrying into the box before opening his body to curl it past Lammens with his left into the bottom left corner.
The ex-Real Madrid star has been lighting it up under Fabregas for a little while now, but if he continues to showcase his talent in the Champions League as well, it will be no surprise when they come knocking with their buy-back option in the near future.