Lens 1-9 Como: Champions League Debutants Equal the Biggest Win in the Competition's History
In their first Champions League season, Como scored nine away from home, with a Tasos Douvikas hat-trick and two assists from Nico Paz, and moved up to fourth in the table.
Some results you read twice to make sure you have not misread them. Lens 1, Como 9 is one of them.
On Wednesday night, 4 November, Como walked into a full stadium in northern France for matchday four of the Champions League and scored nine goals. This is their first season in the competition. Before the night was over they had matched the biggest winning margin the Champions League has ever seen.
How the goals came
It started early. Tasos Douvikas scored from a Máximo Perrone corner after six minutes and added a second just after the half-hour. Nico Paz made it three before the break, finishing a counter-attack with his left foot.
The second half was a flood. Captain Lucas Da Cunha scored two minutes after the restart. Marc Oliver Kempf headed in the fifth. Douvikas completed his hat-trick in the 57th minute from a Paz through ball, and a minute later Mattia Liberali made it seven. Ruben Aguilar pulled one back for Lens, but Martin Baturina and, in stoppage time, Matteo Papaccioli took Como to nine.
Douvikas finished with three goals. Paz finished with a goal and two assists, and he was the player who made Como tick.
A result for the history books
According to Al Jazeera, 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 the first team since 1971 to score nine away goals in the European Cup, and only the second team, after Bayern Munich, to score nine in a Champions League match.
It was Como's third win in four games. They are fourth in the table on nine points, with 19 goals already in their debut campaign.
"It's a crazy night and a crazy result, but we can't get ahead of ourselves," Da Cunha said afterwards.
A small club in the big league
Como are not one of Europe's traditional powers. The club comes from a lakeside town in northern Italy and is playing its first Champions League campaign. After four matches, they have scored more goals than most of the established clubs in the competition.
The league phase still has four rounds to go, and Como are not yet in the knockout places for certain. But a 9-1 away win in their debut season has already made them the surprise package of the competition.
