Como have existed since 1907. Until Thursday night they had never played a match in European competition. They chose a strange way to introduce themselves: 4-1 against RB Leipzig, at a lakeside ground that holds fewer people than some Championship stadiums, in front of a crowd that spent the last twenty minutes singing.
Martin Baturina opened the scoring on 15 minutes. Anastasios Douvikas made it two on 38. Assane Diao struck nine minutes after the break. Andrija Maksimovic pulled one back for Leipzig on 58, and then Maximo Perrone finished it in the ninetieth. Baturina took the UEFA player-of-the-match award.
The Sinigaglia did its job
The Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia is not built for this. It sits on the edge of Lake Como, the stands are close to the pitch, and the noise has nowhere to go. Leipzig, a club engineered over fifteen years for exactly these occasions, never settled in it. Como won the expected-goals count 2.30 to 1.42 and had the better of the clear chances by a wide margin.
Baturina's opener came from the kind of move Fabregas has drilled into this side all season, quick passing through the middle rather than around it. Douvikas doubled the lead before the break, and by then Leipzig were chasing shadows in a ground they could not get comfortable in.
Como join select Italian company
The result makes Fabregas's team only the fourth Italian club to win their European Cup or Champions League debut, after Juventus, AC Milan and Udinese. The four goals put them second on the list of Italian clubs by margin on a European debut, behind Sampdoria's 5-0 win over Rosenborg in September 1991.
For a club that was playing in Serie D a decade ago, that is a genuinely strange sentence to write. The ownership has spent heavily, but spending money does not usually produce a night like this at the first attempt.
Fabregas gave his players five minutes to enjoy it
Speaking to Sky Sport Italia afterwards, Fabregas was already looking past it. "I am happy, but it will only last five minutes, because then we have to prepare against Parma on Monday, and we need the same energy as tonight," he said.
That is the balancing act facing Como now. They have a Serie A season to manage alongside seven more league-phase fixtures, and a squad that has never done both at once. Thursday suggests they will not be intimidated by any of it.
Match facts: Como 4-1 RB Leipzig, UEFA Champions League league phase matchday one, Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia, Thursday 10 September 2026. Scorers: Baturina 15, Douvikas 38, Diao 54, Maksimovic 58 (Leipzig), Perrone 90. Expected goals: Como 2.30, Leipzig 1.42. Como's first match in any European competition in 119 years. Next: Parma, Serie A, Monday.
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