Cesc Fabregas admitted he was left with one major regret after watching his Como side beat Manchester United 4-1 in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Nico Paz produced a man-of-the-match display with two goals and an assist as Como, in their maiden Champions League campaign, secured arguably the biggest victory in their history. Jacobo Ramon made it 4-0 with 14 minutes remaining, but Fabregas then told his team to ease off ahead of their Serie A match against Sassuolo on Saturday.
That decision contributed to Joshua Zirkzee scoring a consolation goal for United in the closing stages, something Fabregas said was his fault.
Fabregas takes blame for late goal
“I regret the last ten minutes because I was the one who told the team to slow down the tempo because there’s another match and at 4-0 we could manage things a little,” Fabregas told Sky Sport Italia.
“I told the players to stop running and stay in the middle and that is something I regret because I’m the first to always push them to fight until the end. Their goal hurt me because we dropped our intensity and dropped our defensive block, but it was my fault.”
United have now won just two of their 11 games in all competitions this season.
Keeping feet on the ground
“It’s a special night, but we are still at the beginning for everything we have in our minds,” Fabregas said. “The team played well this evening, but we need to keep our feet on the ground and remember there is another match coming up on Saturday.”
He added: “I want to dedicate the win to one of our kit staff, he knows why.”
Asked if Como could repeat the performance against Europe’s elite, Fabregas said: “I don’t know about that, it’s a bold statement. We must try to remain humble.”
“We will always prepare and try to play our game, whether it’s against Inter in the Coppa Italia semi-final, or with Napoli and Roma in Serie A. Preparation is fundamental, but so is the belief of these lads. It is all more difficult if they don’t have that.”
“This was Manchester United we were up against tonight, it doesn’t matter if they are struggling at the moment, we must never forget that some of our players were having the third Champions League game of their entire careers. This is why the belief of these lads and their way of doing things gives me life. Winning this way is very satisfying, but this is where it gets difficult, playing the same way on Saturday in Serie A.”
