Cesc Fabregas and his Como side are gearing up for what the club is calling the biggest night in its history — a Champions League clash with Manchester United at the picturesque Giuseppe Sinigaglia Stadium, right on the banks of Lake Como.
Como head coach Cesc Fabregas (Credits: BBC Sport)
“It’s Manchester United. We are only just getting our heads around the fact we are playing Inter, Milan and Juventus,” one Como insider admitted. “This is without doubt the biggest night in the club’s history.” And that is no exaggeration: when United last won the Champions League in 2008, Como were a Serie D amateur club playing in front of crowds measured in the hundreds.
From Serie D to the Champions League in Five Years
Como’s rise is genuinely one of European football’s great fairytales. After falling back to Serie D in 2017, the club was bought in 2019 by Sent Entertainment, owned by Indonesian billionaires Robert Budi Hartono and Michael Bambang Hartono. The original plan was a TV project — until promotion forced them to turn professional and scrap it.
Instead of the planned selling season this year, Fabregas steered the squad to fourth place in 2025-26, capitalising on AC Milan’s shock defeat at Cagliari. That took Como from Serie B to the Champions League in just five seasons since Fabregas arrived as a player. Even Lionel Messi’s son Ciro has given his seal of approval, pictured wearing a replica Como kit.
United Arrive in Crisis
United, meanwhile, travel to Italy in turmoil — six games without a win, their worst run since 2018-19. “Compared to when I finished my career here, it is completely different,” said Fabregas. “It is not even night and day. It is another world.”
“Playing Manchester United is a historic day once again for the club, the city of Como and fanbase. We need to be humble and remember who we were because the story of Como will be beautiful, and we will remember it forever.”
With UEFA’s financial rules looming over their meteoric rise, the questions off the pitch are as big as the night itself. But for 90 minutes on Lake Como, football’s most improbable story takes centre stage.
Also Read: Michael Carrick Demands More Clean Sheets as Man United’s Defensive Crisis Deepens Before Como Clash | No Haaland, No Problem: Phil Foden’s Hat-Trick Stuns AEK Athens in 5-1 Champions League Rout
Source: BBC Sport — read the full story there.
