The Story So Far
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, while AC Milan and Juventus both missed out.
The club, based on the shores of the eponymous lake 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. The team was playing in the fourth division of Italian soccer just seven years ago and has never participated in any continental competition in its 119-year history.
The table did the dramatic work without asking anyone to dress it up.
"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."
The Stakes In Plain Sight
Four teams were vying for the final two Champions League berths in the Italian league's final round. Milan and Roma occupied the third and fourth spots, level on points and two above Como and Juventus.
Roma managed a 2-0 win at already-relegated Hellas Verona, while Milan lost 2-1 at home to Cagliari. That allowed Como, which won 4-1 at Cremonese, to leapfrog the Rossoneri into fourth place — and the final Champions League spot.
Roma finished third in the standings, two points above Como. Milan finished one point below Como in fifth, with Juventus a point further back after letting slip a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 at Torino. The match kicked off an hour late because of fan trouble.
The Next Question
Fabregas' 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 played on a giant speaker wheeled into the room. The 39-year-old coach addressed speculation about his future, noting bigger clubs across Europe were reportedly interested following his impressive early success in a senior manager ial position.
In other results, Antonio Conte's last match in charge of Napoli was a 1-0 win over Udinese that saw the team finish second in Serie A, behind league champion Inter Milan. Conte confirmed after the final whistle that he was leaving Napoli. Lecce beat Genoa 1-0 to secure Serie A safety, moving four points above 18th-place Cremonese, which was relegated alongside Verona and Pisa.