Douvikas Scores Again as Como Crush Manchester United 4-1 in the Champions League

By Taki Panos

Three Champions League games, three goals. Tasos Douvikas is making a habit of this. The Greek striker scored the second goal as Como thrashed Manchester United 4-1 in Italy on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, in the third round of the Champions League league phase, as Sport24 and Gazzetta both reported. Argentine playmaker Nico Paz scored twice and set up the Greek forward in between, and BBC Sport called it one of the worst European nights in United's history.

For anyone who has not been following Como's rise, this is a club that has gone from the lower tiers of Italian football to the biggest club competition in the world in a remarkably short time. BBC Sport pointed out that when United last won the Champions League in 2008, Como were playing in Serie D. Now they are coached by Cesc Fabregas, and they just took apart a club with three European Cups. Greek fans will want to watch them closely, too, because AEK are in the same league phase and recently lost 5-1 to Manchester City.

The party started almost immediately. Paz curled in a superb shot from the edge of the area after just two minutes, leaving goalkeeper Senne Lammens with no chance, per Gazzetta and Sport24. BBC Sport timed the goal at 118 seconds and noted that United became the first English team ever to concede inside the first two minutes of consecutive major European matches, eight days after letting in a first-minute goal against Atletico Madrid. Not the kind of record anyone wants their name on.

United did have a moment of their own in the first half. Harry Maguire sent a header toward goal in the 17th minute, but Sport24 wrote that it never really troubled Como keeper Jean Butez. The hosts were the better team throughout the opening 45 minutes and kept pushing for a second goal that would make life easier, according to Gazzetta. It took until just after the break to arrive, and it was worth the wait for every Greek watching.

In the 49th minute, Paz slid a perfect through ball into the path of Douvikas, who found himself one-on-one with Lammens and placed his shot calmly past him for 2-0, as Gazzetta and Sport24 described it. Sport24 called it a classic center-forward's goal. It was his third goal in three Champions League matchdays this season, Gazzetta noted. That is the kind of finish that looks simple on a replay and is anything but simple in the moment.

The numbers around Douvikas are starting to add up. Before kickoff, Gazzetta reported that this was his ninth appearance of the season in all competitions and that he already had five goals, including the two from Como's first two Champions League games. The paper added that he became the first Greek footballer to score in each of his first two appearances in the competition. With Wednesday's goal, that makes six goals in ten games, and a growing reputation on the biggest stage.

There was also a vote of confidence behind it. Fabregas had said at his pre-match press conference that Douvikas would start against United, Gazzetta reported, and the coach kept his word, putting the Greek international at the top of the attack. Sport24 also listed him in Como's starting eleven, alongside Paz, Lucas da Cunha and the rest of a side that played with real freedom. When a coach backs you publicly before a night like this, answering him with a goal matters.

Como did not let up after the second goal. In the 57th minute Paz stole the ball high up the pitch, carried it through the middle and finished coolly past Lammens for 3-0, per Gazzetta and Sport24. Defender Jacobo Ramon then powered in a header from a cross by Kaiki to make it 4-0 with less than a quarter of an hour left, both outlets reported. At that point it was simply a question of how big the margin would be.

For United, the only consolation came in stoppage time, when substitute Joshua Zirkzee beat the offside trap and finished a cross from fellow substitute Amad Diallo, BBC Sport reported. By then, the visitors had already made big changes. BBC Sport noted that Matheus Cunha and Andrey Santos were taken off at half-time and captain Bruno Fernandes was replaced midway through the second half. For a while, the BBC wrote, it looked as if United might match their heaviest European defeat, a 5-0 loss to Sporting in 1964.

United manager Michael Carrick did not hide from it. "I 100% take responsibility for the overall team and the performance. That's where it stops. It stops with me," he told TNT Sports, as quoted by BBC Sport. He added that, as a supporter of the club for so long, seeing a performance like that was unacceptable, and said he had apologised to the traveling fans. BBC Sport's headline put it bluntly: the result leaves his job in danger.

My take: it is easy to get carried away with a 4-1 win over a club the size of Manchester United, especially a United side that looked this lost. But Douvikas did not score against a struggling team by accident. He has now scored in every Champions League game Como have played this season, and he did it again with a cool, clinical finish when the chance came. Greek strikers abroad are often judged harshly. Right now this one is giving people very little to complain about, joining Kostoulas at Brighton and Koulierakis at Roma in a strong autumn for Greeks in Europe's top leagues.

There is a date to circle, too. Como host AEK on Tuesday, November 24, at 10:00 PM Athens time, in the fifth round of the league phase, Sport24 reported. A Greek striker facing a Greek club in the Champions League should make for quite a night. Until then, keep an eye on our Greek Sports section for every Douvikas goal and every Greek result in Europe. Three games, three goals. Keep counting.

Sources: Sport24, Gazzetta, BBC Sport, TNT Sports.

Image: Anastasios (Tasos) Douvikas at an FC Utrecht training session in 2022 by Niels98, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).