MILAN (AP) — Como's remarkable rise continued Sunday as Cesc Fàbregas' team qualified for the Champions League along with Roma on the last day of the Serie A season. AC Milan and Juventus missed out, and Cremonese was relegated.
The club, which has never participated in any continental competition in its 119-year history, was playing in the fourth division of Italian soccer just seven years ago.
The table did the dramatic work without asking anyone to dress it up.
From bar room to Europe's elite
"When I arrived four years ago as a player we changed in a bar, today we're in the Champions League," Fabregas said. "We had massages in the back room of a bar, in a field… And today, less than four years later, we're going to play in the Champions League."
Fabregas called it a huge achievement for a squad full of kids — the 15 players who featured most were nearly all under 23. "I think that's marvelous and a masterpiece from the whole squad," he said.
His post-match press conference was interrupted by his overjoyed players, who threw water over the ir coach as the y sang the Champions League anthem, which was also played on a giant speaker wheeled into the room.
Final-day chaos delivers fairytale ending
Four teams were vying for the final two Champions League berths in the Italian league's final round. Milan and Roma occupied third and fourth spots, level on points, two above Como and Juventus.
Roma managed to win 2-0 at already-relegated Hellas Verona. Milan lost 2-1 at home to Cagliari. That saw the Rossoneri leapfrogged by Como, which won 4-1 at Cremonese.
Roma finished third, two points above Como, which claimed fourth place and a spot in Europe's elite club competition. Milan finished one point below Como, with Juventus a point further back after drawing 2-2 at Torino. The Juventus match kicked off an hour late because of fan trouble.
Como, based on the shores of LakeComo in northern Italy, has made rapid progress since Indonesian tobacco billionaire brothers Robert Budi Hartono and Michael Bambang Hartono purchased the club in 2019, when it was in Serie D.
Serie A permutations
Inter Milan were already confirmed as league champions. Antonio Conte's last match in charge of Napoli was a 1-0 win over Udinese, which saw his team finish second.
Lecce beat Genoa 1-0 to secure Serie A safety, moving four points above 18th-place Cremonese. Cremonese will join Verona and Pisa in the second division next season.