Como equal Champions League record with stunning 9-1 rout at Lens
Tasos Douvikas scored a hat-trick as Como thrashed Lens 9-1 away from home, matching the biggest winning margin in Champions League history on a historic night in France.
Como produced one of the most extraordinary nights in Champions League history on Wednesday, thrashing Lens 9-1 away from home to equal the biggest winning margin the competition has ever seen.
The Italian side, playing their first ever Champions League campaign under head coach Cesc Fabregas, became only the second team to score nine goals in a single match in the tournament, after Bayern Munich's 9-2 win over Dinamo Zagreb in September 2024. They also became the first away team ever to score nine goals in a Champions League match.
The rout at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis began early. Tasos Douvikas opened the scoring in the seventh minute and doubled the lead in the 32nd, before Nico Paz added a third before half-time to leave the home crowd stunned at the break.
There was no let-up after the restart. Lucas Da Cunha struck shortly after the interval, Marc-Oliver Kempf headed in another, and Douvikas completed his hat-trick to take his tally to six goals in this season's competition, making him its top scorer so far.
Mattia Liberali added a sixth for the visitors before Ruben Aguilar pulled one back for Lens with a fine volley, briefly interrupting the flow. Martin Baturina restored the seven-goal cushion, and 18-year-old Matteo Papaccioli rounded off the scoring in stoppage time on his senior debut.
The result was the heaviest defeat ever suffered by a French club in the competition, and it left Lens 33rd in the league-phase standings with three points from four matches, their European campaign now in serious trouble.
For Como, the victory was their third in four matches in the league phase, lifting them to fourth place on nine points and consolidating their place in the top eight. It followed their 4-1 win over Manchester United, and it extended a run of form that has turned a debut European campaign into one of the stories of the season.
Douvikas has now scored in all four of Como's Champions League matches, a remarkable record for a player leading the line for a club that only recently arrived at this level. Paz, who scored one and set up two, was named player of the match, and he marked his goal by holding up a shirt in honour of Jesus de Miguel, who died in an on-field accident.
Fabregas struck a careful note afterwards, calling it a wonderful night for Como but insisting the team needed to keep its feet on the ground as Champions League ambition starts to build around the club. That caution reflects the scale of what lies ahead: the league phase still has four rounds to run, and the teams chasing the top eight will not make the run-in easy.
For Lens, the questions are harder. A night that began as a home European tie ended as a record defeat, and the club must now find a way to steady itself quickly or risk its campaign ending before the knockout conversation even begins.
Como, meanwhile, will carry this result with them for a long time. A 9-1 away win in the Champions League is the kind of scoreline that rewrites a club's history in a single evening, and the challenge now is to prove that this was the start of something lasting rather than one unforgettable night in northern France.
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