Nico Paz Masterclass Powers Como 4-1 Manchester United as Champions League Rout Deepens United Crisis

Como 1907, the Italian club playing in the UEFA Champions League for the very first time this season, produced one of the great nights in the competition’s recent history on Wednesday, sweeping aside a dismal Manchester United 4-1 at the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia, according to Reuters. The architect of the rout was Argentina playmaker Nico Paz, who scored twice and provided an assist in a performance that deepened the crisis engulfing the English club and its manager Michael Carrick.

Paz opened the scoring after just two minutes, set up Anastasios Douvikas for Como’s second four minutes after half-time, and then scored again just before the hour mark after a surging solo run, Reuters reported. Centre-back Jacobo Ramon added a fourth with a header in the 76th minute before Joshua Zirkzee pulled back a stoppage-time consolation for United.

The defeat stretched United’s winless run to seven matches in all competitions and left Carrick’s position under serious scrutiny, with the club’s next fixture — a Premier League trip to face Bournemouth on Sunday — suddenly looking decisive for the manager’s future, according to USA Today.

How the rout unfolded

Como signalled their intent from the first whistle. Paz collected the ball at the edge of the penalty area inside two minutes, found space that Harry Maguire had allowed him, and curled a shot past United goalkeeper Senne Lammens to send the 10,000-capacity stadium into delirium, the Associated Press reported.

The goal carried a bitter significance for United: they became the first English side in history to concede within the opening two minutes of successive major European ties, the AP noted, after Pablo Barrios had scored in the first minute of Atletico Madrid’s 2-0 victory over them a week earlier.

United reached half-time just one goal down, but the contest was settled in a devastating spell after the restart. In the 49th minute Paz threaded a perfectly weighted ball through the United defence for Douvikas, who beat the offside trap and lobbed Lammens for his third goal in three Champions League matches, according to the AP. Eight minutes later Paz robbed Carlos Baleba near the right touchline, surged diagonally for more than 30 metres and steered a left-footed finish inside the far post to make it 3-0.

Substitute Kaiki Bruno raced down the left flank in the 76th minute and crossed for Ramon to head home Como’s fourth, Reuters reported. Zirkzee’s late strike from Amad Diallo’s cross was the merest consolation.

The making of Nico Paz

For those who have followed Italian football over the past two seasons, Paz’s masterclass was confirmation rather than revelation. The 22-year-old joined Como from Real Madrid’s academy, La Fábrica, in August 2024 in a deal that initially cost the Italians €6 million for half of his registration, according to the Associated Press and his Wikipedia profile.

In his debut Serie A season he registered six goals and nine assists in 35 matches and was named the league’s best under-23 player. Last season he went further — 13 goals and seven assists in 40 matches — as Como finished fourth in Serie A, ahead of Italian giants, to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in the club’s history.

Real Madrid retained a buy-back option over the player they had developed since he was 12, but this summer Como paid €60 million to own 100 per cent of his registration, with the Spanish club keeping a priority buy-back that can be triggered for €80 million in the summer of 2027, according to zerozero.pt.

Born in the Canary Islands to an Argentine father, Paz chose to represent Argentina, made his senior international debut in October 2024 — assisting Lionel Messi on that very night — and was part of the squad that reached the 2026 World Cup final. The AP’s Rome dispatch noted that he has been auditioning to inherit Messi’s playmaker role for the national team, and his display against United was, in the agency’s words, a compelling case.

Paz himself seemed aware of the scale of the night. Football Italia reported that he described the performance against the three-time European champions as one of the finest of his career and urged his team-mates to approach every fixture “as if it’s our last”.

A club in freefall

If the night belonged to Como, it humiliated Manchester United. The AP reported that United have now been outscored 6-1 in their last two European matches, have won only one of their last 11 away games in the Champions League, and dropped to 20th in the league-phase standings while Como climbed to ninth.

The statistics of the broader collapse are stark. United have won only twice in their opening ten matches of the 2026-27 campaign and are enduring their worst start to a season in 40 years, according to USA Today. Their seven-match winless run is the club’s longest since November 2015, as reported by the Yardbarker syndication of the match coverage.

Midfielder Youri Tielemans did not sugar-coat the performance. “We got outplayed for most of the game so it was a very disappointing night,” he told reporters afterwards, according to the AP. “It’s everything. You can be good tactically but if the effort is not good [then it won’t work] and vice versa. You need to be good at everything and tonight we were poor. It comes down to that.”

The defeat landed on top of a club already in turmoil. Last week defender Lisandro Martinez publicly called out United’s hierarchy over the club’s summer recruitment, with director of football Jason Wilcox the apparent target of his criticism, the AP reported. In January, former manager Ruben Amorim fell out with Wilcox in a dispute that swiftly led to his dismissal after just 14 months in the job.

Carrick, appointed as the full-time manager in the summer after a spell in charge, now carries that same instability into Sunday’s match at Bournemouth. USA Today reported that the manager’s status “will now surely be in doubt” and described the Bournemouth fixture as suddenly looking decisive for his future.

Around the grounds on matchday three

United were not the only heavyweights to suffer a difficult evening. Declan Rice scored a late equaliser as Arsenal drew 2-2 with Bayern Munich in a heavyweight clash in Germany, with Harry Kane converting a penalty to bring up his 16th career goal against the Gunners and his 10th consecutive Champions League match with a goal, one short of Cristiano Ronaldo’s record, the AP reported. Bukayo Saka was forced off early through injury, a worrying sight for Arsenal.

Real Madrid warmed up for Sunday’s clasico with Barcelona in comfortable fashion, beating RB Leipzig 4-1 at the Bernabeu, while Aston Villa moved second in the league-phase standings with a 3-1 win over Norwegian side Viking — trailing only two-time defending champions Paris Saint-Germain on goals scored. PSG beat Barcelona 4-2 on Tuesday but lost Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to a season-ending knee injury. Elsewhere on Wednesday: Inter Milan 1-0 Shakhtar Donetsk, Sporting Lisbon 2-3 LASK, Lille 2-4 Galatasaray, Club Brugge 3-0 Lens and Real Betis 1-0 Feyenoord, according to the AP.

Analysis: Why It Matters

A fairy tale — but one with a balance sheet

Como’s rise reads like a romance: a club playing in Italy’s fourth division just seven years ago, now dismantling Manchester United in the Champions League. But the romance has been underwritten by serious money and serious planning. The Sinigaglia was renovated over the summer to meet UEFA criteria; the recruitment has been shrewd rather than extravagant; and the appointment of Cesc Fabregas — a World Cup winner with a clear footballing philosophy — has given the project an identity that money alone cannot buy. Como’s director of football Carlalberto Ludi told Sky Sport Italia this month that the club intends to “keep writing new history”. Wednesday night was the biggest page yet, and it was earned.

United’s problem is structural, not tactical

Managers come and go at Old Trafford — Amorim lasted 14 months — but the pattern of humiliation outlasts them all. Martinez’s public criticism of the club’s recruitment, coming from inside the dressing room, was arguably more damaging than any scoreline: it exposed a rift between the players and the executives that no coaching change can repair. Carrick may or may not survive Sunday. But until United resolve who is buying the players, and to what plan, changing the man in the dugout will keep resembling rearranging furniture while the building subsides.

The €80 million shadow over Como’s joy

Every standing ovation for Paz in Como carries a quiet footnote: Real Madrid can take him back. The €80 million priority buy-back, triggerable in the summer of 2027, is one of the most intriguing clauses in European football — a valuation that already looks conservative after a night like this. Como’s decision to pay €60 million to own him outright in June was a statement of ambition; whether it becomes a masterstroke of development or merely a profitable staging post depends on whether Paz still wants to be a Lariano when Madrid come calling. Nights like Wednesday make that call harder for the player and easier for the cheque-writers.

The league phase is doing its job

When UEFA replaced the group stage with the 36-team league phase, critics predicted it would protect the giants. Instead it keeps producing nights like this: Como, in their first European campaign, ninth in the table; United, three-time European champions, 20th and staring at the prospect of missing the knockout rounds entirely. The format has given ambitious smaller clubs a stage and denied the giants their safety nets. Whatever one thinks of the expanded competition, the drama is undeniable.

Carrick’s reckoning

The cruelty of football management is that sympathy counts for nothing. Carrick, a decorated former player handed the full-time role in the summer, has had seven winless games to imprint his ideas — and the team has looked progressively worse. Sunday at Bournemouth is no longer merely a fixture; it is, in the words of USA Today’s match coverage, the game that will likely decide whether he keeps his job. Lose, and United’s board will be searching for a third manager in under a year. Win, and the reprieve may last only until the next humiliation. That is the arithmetic of a club in freefall.

What to watch next

1. Manchester United vs Bournemouth (Sunday): Carrick’s future hangs on the result; a defeat could trigger yet another managerial search at Old Trafford.
2. Real Madrid vs Barcelona (Sunday): El Clasico arrives with Madrid in strong form after the 4-1 win over Leipzig and Barcelona smarting from the 4-2 defeat to PSG.
3. Paz and the Madrid buy-back: every virtuoso display inflates the €80 million clause’s bargain status — expect the saga to dominate transfer columns until summer 2027.
4. Como’s top-eight chase: ninth in the league phase, unbeaten at home in Europe, with Sassuolo and Torino next domestically — the dream of automatic qualification is alive.
5. United’s league-phase jeopardy: sitting 20th after three matchdays, the Red Devils can no longer afford dropped points if they want to reach the knockout rounds.

Sources

• Reuters: Paz dazzles as Como thrash Manchester United 4-1
• Associated Press (via Sportsnet): Champions League Roundup — Man United’s crisis deepens
• USA Today: Como hammers dismal Manchester United — recap and highlights
• Football Italia: Nico Paz — ‘I’ll never forget Man United’
• Nico Paz — career profile and statistics