Key events
46 mins: Peeeeep! The game has restarted, and United have made a double halftimely substitution, Matheus Cunha and Andrey Santos going off, Diallo and Baleba coming on.
Just one goal, and that from a wonderful shot from outside the area, does not really reflect what has not been a tightly-contested game. United had one good chance, after just a couple of minutes, and even that came after some terrible ball control from Diogo Dalot and a lucky bounce off Perrone, for whom Dalot’s inability to control a football had been not so much unpredictable as unimaginable. I’m not sure what Uefa classify as an “attack” but Como have had 16 of them, and United five.
Half time: Como 1-0 Manchester United
45+2 mins: It never rains but it pours, etc.
45+1 mins: One minute of stoppage time stands between United and the hairdryer treatment (or whatever it is they get these days when they’ve been rubbish).
45 mins: An actual shot for United! Matheus Cunha gets the ball on the left-hand corner of the area, back to goal, then spins and sends a curling effort onto the roof of the net.
43 mins: More work for Lammens, this time to keep out Baturina’s 20-yarder. He can’t hold it, but Douvikas is offside again as he reaches the rebound. “It’s mindblowing,” writes Joshua Keeling, “that Diogo Dalot is a professional footballer.”
41 mins: United are saved by the offside flag! Douvikas is played through again, Lammens comes out and the striker goes over his leg … but the flag is up!
39 mins: Real chance! Yan Couto, no pressure on him, plays a lovely pass over the United defence to Douvikas, who brings it under control before wildly mishitting his shot, which skews off his shin high and wide when really he should have scored.
38 mins: It is gently mindblowing that Diogo Dalot has played more then 250 games for United. I think United’s full-backs have both been pretty poor so far.
35 mins: Como attack again, but Douvikas ends up isolated, and forced wide by De Ligt, meaning that his left-footed shot is also easily dealt with by Lammens.
34 mins: Como work space on their left, but the cross they come up with is poor, and Lammens collects.
30 mins: Diogo Dalot sprints out to intercept a rare loose Como pass (good) only to produce one of his own that is just dreadful (bad), looping in the vague direction of Mbeumo but with no chance of ever reaching him, and Como have the ball again.
27 mins: The ball is played to Fernandes, who has to stretch for it, and by the time he brings it under control two blue shirts are upon him and one of them steals it away. The United captain spins and waves his arms in frustration at the poor pass (presumably).
25 mins: Andrey Santos dives in to challenge Paz, who flicks the ball over him, so he lifts his other leg to bring the Argentinian down and, in doing so, earns the game’s first booking.
24 mins: United have the ball for a bit, and Tielemans spots a pass through to Fernandes, but a Como boot gets in the way.
23 mins: Uefa say Como have had 64% of possession so far, which is surprisingly little.
19 mins: A bright exchange of rat-a-tat passes ends with Baturina going down in the penalty area and loud shouts for a penalty, but it was a fine challenge and the referee waves play on.
17 mins: It’s a poor corner but Dalot sends it back to Mbeumo and this time he puts in a better cross. Maguire wins the header, but the ball flies wide.
16 mins: United attack! Mbeumo gets to the byline, but his cross is blocked and flies behind for a corner.
16 mins: Me typing that Como were completely dominant leads, inevitably, to United’s best spell of the game, even if all that involved was 90 seconds of possession in and around the halfway line.
14 mins: Space briefly opens up for Perrone to release Douvikas, but he fluffs the pass and plunges his head into his hands in disgust. Como completely dominant at present.
13 mins: Baturina tricks his way past Dalot, who is left grasping for a fistful of shirt – and doesn’t even get that.
11 mins: Paz and Da Cunha press Mazraoui, who completely panics, falls over, and Paz is able to escape down the Como right, but his cross is cleared.
8 mins: Paz now sprints across to steal Lammens’ pass to Mazraoui as United try, and fail, to work the ball out of defence. They end up escaping from the situation with a throw-in, though.
6 mins: Como win a free-kick on the left, swing it into the box, but it’s cleared. Kari Tulinius has done some actual work on that statue, and found some proper info: “It’s a bust of living Como legend Alessandro Gabrielloni, who played with Como in Series D, C, B and A, but has spent the last couple of seasons on loan in Serie B,” he writes. “I’d have gone for a slightly different pose, but it is undeniably eye-catching.”
GOAL! Como 1-0 Manchester United (Paz, 2 mins)
Como run up the other end, and they don’t miss their chance! Paz squares Maguire up, shifts onto his left foot and curls into the far corner from the edge of the area!
2 mins: Chance! Cunha passes to Dalot, whose control is poor but gets a lucky bounce and ends up with a shooting chance, which he fluffs!
1 min: Peeeeep! United kick off, and swiftly punt the ball forwards, giving it away in the process.
The players are on the pitch and very nearly ready to go.
Poor mascot coming out to pick up the match ball looks like someone just dragged him out of a ditch.
The players are in the tunnel. It is, as predicted, raining hard.
The big question pre-match is: what’s going on with this statue, which appears to be of “bloke being kneed in privates”?
Michael Carrick now has a little, umbrella-sheltered chat:
It’s fantastic to have Matt [de Ligt] back, he’s worked so hard for such a long period of time. They’re a really good team, and they’ve had a long spell of winning a lot of games. We want to look like a really good team, control the game a little bit here – coming away in Europe you want to control the ball a little bit. It’s part of the beauty of football, different styles, different things you come up against every week. We trust our shape.
Jamie Jackson
Seven hundred Manchester United fans have made the trip to Lombardy, northern Italy, where Como 1907 play at the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia (capacity 13,602), which is located on a shore of Lake Como. It is raining – hard – as kickoff approaches, as it has been since I arrived around 5.30pm local time on Tuesday. Como are billing this as the biggest game in their history, in what is their debut Champions League campaign. The big question for Michael Carrick’s team is simple: can they win only a third game of of the season here?
Cesc Fabregas has a chat:
It’s a very special night, for the city, for the club. We’ve grown a lot and I think the players deserve to be living nights like this. Let’s enjoy it. A great honour for us. We have a very young team, we’re trying to create a culture, a style of play, which can take years. At the end of the day it’s conviction, to send a very clear idea, and a good thing about young players is they are not scared. Over the years, when you get older, is when you start maybe getting a little bit more worried.
Word is it’s going to be very seriously damp in Como this evening, and early photos from the ground suggest the afternoon hasn’t been much better.
The teams!
Matthijs de Ligt comes in for Manchester United, making his first appearance since November last year, as Michael Carrick makes four changes. Como make three changes, with Trevoh Chalobah missing out.
Como: Butez; Yan Couto, Ramon, Kempf, Valle; Milla, Perrone; Da Cunha, Paz, Baturina; Douvikas. Subs: Ginelli, Sanchez, Caqueret, Dossena, Kaiki Bruno, Ricci, Smolcic, Liberali.
Manchester United:
Lammens; Dalot, Maguire, De Ligt, Mazraoui; Andrey Santos, Tielemans; Matheus Cunha, Bruno Fernandes, Mount; Mbeumo. Subs: Darlow, Heaton, Zirkzee, Diallo, Baleba, Thompson, Lacey, J Fletcher, T Fletcher, Amass, Kamason, Armer.
Referee:
Sven Jablonski (Germany).
Preamble
Hello world! And welcome to this, a tale of two managers. Poor Michael Carrick, for all his undoubted ability, has been negatively compared for Cesc Fabregas for many years. Back in October 2009 the Guardian’s late, great football correspondent David Lacey wrote a column in praise of the Spaniard’s reliable brilliance – “Bergkamp did have off days, whereas Fabregas just has the odd day off” – in which Carrick was referred to, in passing, as a “gifted water carrier”. And here they are, 17 years and a few days later, up against each other once again, in a different role, one of them obviously good, the other evidently better.
Transfermarkt estimates the value of Como’s squad at €568.15m, and Manchester United’s at €928.80m. Como have lost only once in the league this season, while United have won only once. Both have one win and one defeat in their first two Champions League fixtures. And tonight seems destined to be discussed primarily in terms of how it affects Carrick’s standing and chances of long-term employment.
Not only was Carrick’s pre-match press conference dominated by discussion about his future – “I don’t need any reassurance. It’s pretty clear. I know the role, I know my responsibilities. I don’t need anyone else to tell me when it’s going well or when it needs to be better. There’s not much I can really elaborate on that. I know we’ve got to win football games for everything to flow and everything to fit into place.” – but Fabregas’s pre-match press conference was also dominated by discussion about Carrick’s future. “As you can understand I won’t answer that question because I think that’s not a very nice question,” he said. “I don’t think that shows enough respect to a great footballer and manager like Michael Carrick at the helm of a wonderful Manchester United side.”
It is all, in short, a bit rum. But for a couple of hours, starting at 5.45pm BST, perhaps we might let ourselves be distracted, if only for a while, by some actual football.
Here’s Jamie Jackson’s pre-match update:
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