Champions League · Lens - Como · Wed, 4 Nov, 21:00
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ComoLens 1-9 Como: a perfect run turns into a Champions League rout
Como demolish Lens and climb to 4th place in the 36-team table. They arrived with 5 wins from 5. Now their goal tally stands at 19 scored.
9 goals. In a Champions League match, away from home. Lens-Como ends 1-9 and the result rewrites the table.
The pitch and the standings do the talking.
A run that hadn't stopped
Como arrived in Lens with 5 wins from 5 games, across league and cup. In those matches they had scored 13 goals and conceded 3. Across Serie A and the Champions League the pattern was the same:
- Fiorentina beaten 3-1 away
- Manchester United swept aside 4-1 in the Champions League
- Sassuolo 2-0
- Torino 3-1 away
- Venezia 1-0, the most recent
This wasn't just a team that won. It was a team that scored consistently, even away from home. The 9-1 is the extreme outcome of that trend.
At the other end, a team in crisis
Lens were in the opposite moment. Over their last 5 games, across Ligue 1 and the Champions League, they had 2 wins and 3 defeats, with 5 goals scored and 8 conceded. In the Champions League there were 2 defeats without scoring: 0-3 away at Club Brugge KV and 0-2 at home to Sporting CP. On October 30 came a 1-0 defeat at Lille as well.
A defense already struggling ran into the attack in the best form. The scoreline tells the rest.
What changes in the table
This is where the night's weight is enormous. Como are 4th out of 36 teams, with 9 points from 4 games: 3 wins and 1 defeat. The goal difference says far more than the points: 19 goals scored and 6 conceded.
Lens are 33rd with 3 points from 4 games: 1 win and 3 defeats. They have scored 4 goals and conceded 16. For Como, goal difference is an asset. For Lens, it is a hole that is hard to climb out of.
Como's key men
Two Como names appear in the competition's scorers' chart. T. Douvikas has 6 goals and 1 assist. N. Paz has 3 goals and 5 assists. They are the two attacking reference points of a team that has already scored plenty in this Champions League.
The comparison
Line up the numbers from before the game. On one side, Como, with 5 wins from 5. On the other, Lens, with 2 wins and 3 defeats in their last 5 and 0 goals scored in the 2 Champions League games of that run. The 9-1 is the distance between those two streaks, put on the scoresheet in a single match.
What to watch in the coming days
- The updated table: does Como's 4th place hold once the other games are played?
- Douvikas and Paz: will they add to their tallies again?
- Lens, 33rd with 16 goals conceded: they will have to show they have put this night behind them.
The pitch has already given its answer.
