Cesc Fabregas' Como Scored Nine in France — Now They Get Inter

Como are fourth in Serie A. Como are also fourth in the Champions League. Read the second sentence again, because on the evidence of this week, it is the rest of Italian football that has the problem.

On Wednesday night in northern France, Cesc Fabregas' side went to Lens and won 9-1. Not a typo, not a cup tie against amateurs — a Champions League league-phase match, away from home, in Como's first-ever season in the competition. The eight-goal margin equals the biggest win in Champions League history, alongside Liverpool's 8-0 against Beşiktaş and Real Madrid's 8-0 against Malmö. Como are only the second team ever to score nine in a Champions League match, after Bayern Munich's 9-2 against Dinamo Zagreb in 2024, and the first team to score nine away from home in the European Cup since Feyenoord did it in 1971. It is the biggest victory an Italian club has ever recorded in the competition.

Tasos Douvikas scored a hat-trick — 7, 32, 57 — and was named Player of the Match. He has now scored in all four of Como's Champions League appearances, and his six goals make him the competition's top scorer. Nico Paz scored one and made two, which quietly makes him the most productive player in the entire tournament: three goals and five assists in four games, the most goal involvements and the most assists of anyone in the Champions League. Lucas Da Cunha, Marc-Oliver Kempf, Mattia Liberali and Martin Baturina scored too, and the ninth, in stoppage time, came from 18-year-old Matteo Papaccioli on his European debut. Nineteen goals in their first four European matches matches a record set by Queens Park Rangers in 1976.

Fabregas, characteristically, underplayed the whole thing afterwards: "There's nothing but positives for us to take this evening. Everything went right for us."

Here is the part that should embarrass the establishment. The Champions League league-phase table this morning reads: Paris Saint-Germain top, then Real Madrid, then Arsenal — then Como, fourth, on nine points. Inter, Italy's champions, are 15th on six. Roma are 20th on four. Napoli, who lost 4-1 at Porto on the same night Como were scoring nine, are 27th on three. Of the four Italian clubs in the competition, the one playing its first-ever campaign — a club that was in Serie D seven years ago — is not just the best of them in Europe. It is the best of them by a distance.

And this is not a European sugar rush propping up a league struggler. Como are fourth in Serie A too: 23 points from ten games, seven wins, one defeat, 18 scored and eight conceded — the joint-tightest defence in the division, level with the league leaders. They have won four straight league games and are unbeaten in five. In their first-ever Champions League match, Como beat RB Leipzig 4-1 at home. On October 21, Como beat Manchester United 4-1 at home. Douvikas, the Lens hat-trick hero, is also their top league scorer with five.

The comparison, plainly: Sunday's hosts, Inter, are second in Serie A with 25 points and the league's second-best attack (26 scored) — but they have conceded 13 to Como's eight, they lost the Milan derby 3-1 in their last league game, and in Europe they sit 11 places and three points behind their visitors. Top scorers are level, five league goals apiece: Marcus Thuram for Inter, Douvikas for Como. Inter's perfect home record — five wins from five at San Siro in the league — is the wall. Como's form is the thing running at it.

Inter will be without their captain and best finisher: Lautaro Martínez is still out with a thigh problem and is not expected back until after the international break, so Thuram partners Francesco Pio Esposito up front, with Alessandro Bastoni expected to return in the back three. Como are missing players too — Moise Kean remains sidelined with the shin injury that has kept him out for weeks, and Assane Diao is also absent — but this is a side that scored nine in France with those absences already in place, and Fabregas was able to take Paz and Douvikas off before the hour mark at Lens with this game in mind.

The stakes fit on one line: win, and Como go above Inter — second place, behind only Lazio, going into the international break. Lose, and the gap to the top four tightens with Milan and Roma around them. Either way, by Sunday night we will know more about what this team actually is than any 9-1 in France can tell us. Beating Lens made history. Beating Inter at San Siro would make it real.

Fabregas has already been asked how long Como can keep him, and how long they can keep this group together. Those are questions for the summer. Sunday's question is smaller and much more interesting: are the fourth-best team in Europe right now also about to become the second-best team in Italy?

Watch it: Inter vs Como, Sunday Nov 8, 09:00 PT (18:00 CET), San Siro, Milan — Paramount+ in the US. The same day at the top of Serie A: Napoli vs Lazio, 03:30 PT; Fiorentina vs Juventus, 11:45 PT.

Sources · 6 sources

• UEFA — Champions League fixtures and results list (Lens 1-9 Como, Matchday 4) and the official Matchday 4 round-up: "Como equal biggest-ever win"
• Football Italia — Match report of Lens 1-9 Como via Livescore — scorers, Douvikas Player of the Match, team news
• TNT Sports — Record reporting with Opta and Reuters lines: the eight-goal margin record, the Feyenoord 1971 away mark, Fabregas reaction
• Inter (official site) — Opponent analysis, Inter vs Como (November 6, 2026): league-phase standings and Como's defensive record
• NBC Sports / TheStatsAPI — Serie A table after Matchday 10 and the Champions League league-phase table after Matchday 4
• DAZN — Inter vs Como preview and team news (November 5, 2026): Lautaro Martínez out, Kean out, kickoff details

Every kick from San Siro — lineups, live score and the full match record — is in the Game Center for Inter vs Como, and the full Italian slate lives on the Serie A front.