In sight of the Alps, a boat ride from George Clooney’s villa, Manchester United will hope, in what has been a terrible start to the season, that things do not get any worse. They can’t – for the team’s prospects, and Michael Carrick’s job security, because witnessed here by Lake Como was a humiliation of the three-times European champions by Cesc Fàbregas’s competition debutants, as United suffered their worst defeat in continental football since 1994. By 57 minutes this was over, as Como were 3-0 ahead, and Nico Paz had destroyed Carrick’s men with a scintillating display featuring two goals and the assist for Tasos Douvikas’s strike.
When Como attacked and defended it was as a unit supremely drilled by Fàbregas. Carrick, on this and the evidence of only two wins all term, is a coach struggling at elite level. Como’s supremacy in the most famous victory of their 119 years came despite 62 total Champions League appearances v United’s 242.
Or, more simply, the Italians’ men against United’s boys. At a sold-out Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia (capacity 13,602), the visitors went down to a club whose tagline is “the most beautiful football in the most beautiful location”. For United, though, this was an ugly night in Lombardy.
Disaster hit two minutes in. Carrick’s men snoozed, allowing a Paz curler from the right to beat Senne Lammens, and the local faithful partied. This was a whole 60 seconds longer than Atlético Madrid were kept out in last week’s 2-0 defeat, as United became the first English team to concede inside two minutes in consecutive major European matches.
The opener came moments after Diogo Dalot spurned a simple opening to dizzy the hosts: Matheus Cunha flipped the ball to his right-back, Dalot’s touch was awful, yet after possession was retained, he ballooned wide. This was United’s current form crystallised at each end of the pitch: a basic lack of quality. When Paz left Noussair Mazraoui gasping, as the No 10 careered along Como’s right, another example was on show.
Cunha, running back, could not stop Paz and if his cross had found a colleague, and not Mason Mount, Lammens might have been beaten again. Mount lined up alongside Andrey Santos in a midfield that had Cunha, Youri Tielemans and Bryan Mbeumo ahead, with Bruno Fernandes again a false-ish 9. Como hogged the ball throughout so any United foray needed to threaten Jean Butez’s goal: Mbeumo’s corner from the right patently did not when failing to clear a first defender.
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