Key events
Jamie Jackson
Seven hundred Manchester United fans have made the trip to Lombardy, northern Italy, where Como 1907 play at the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia (capacity 13,602), which is located on a shore of Lake Como. It is raining – hard – as kickoff approaches, as it has been since I arrived around 5.30pm local time on Tuesday. Como are billing this as the biggest game in their history, in what is their debut Champions League campaign. The big question for Michael Carrick’s team is simple: can they win only a third game of of the season here?
Cesc Fabregas has a chat:
It’s a very special night, for the city, for the club. We’ve grown a lot and I think the players deserve to be living nights like this. Let’s enjoy it. A great honour for us. We have a very young team, we’re trying to create a culture, a style of play, which can take years. At the end of the day it’s conviction, to send a very clear idea, and a good thing about young players is they are not scared. Over the years, when you get older, is when you start maybe getting a little bit more worried.
Word is it’s going to be very seriously damp in Como this evening, and early photos from the ground suggest the afternoon hasn’t been much better.
The teams!
Matthijs de Ligt comes in for Manchester United, making his first appearance since November last year, as Michael Carrick makes four changes. Como make three changes, with Trevoh Chalobah missing out.
Como: Butez; Yan Couto, Ramon, Kempf, Valle; Milla, Perrone; Da Cunha, Paz, Baturina; Douvikas. Subs: Ginelli, Sanchez, Caqueret, Dossena, Kaiki Bruno, Ricci, Smolcic, Liberali.
Manchester United:
Lammens; Dalot, Maguire, De Ligt, Mazraoui; Andrey Santos, Tielemans; Matheus Cunha, Bruno Fernandes, Mount; Mbeumo. Subs: Darlow, Heaton, Zirkzee, Diallo, Baleba, Thompson, Lacey, J Fletcher, T Fletcher, Amass, Kamason, Armer.
Referee:
Sven Jablonski (Germany).
Preamble
Hello world! And welcome to this, a tale of two managers. Poor Michael Carrick, for all his undoubted ability, has been negatively compared for Cesc Fabregas for many years. Back in October 2009 the Guardian’s late, great football correspondent David Lacey wrote a column in praise of the Spaniard’s reliable brilliance – “Bergkamp did have off days, whereas Fabregas just has the odd day off” – in which Carrick was referred to, in passing, as a “gifted water carrier”. And here they are, 17 years and a few days later, up against each other once again, in a different role, one of them obviously good, the other evidently better.
Transfermarkt estimates the value of Como’s squad at €568.15m, and Manchester United’s at €928.80m. Como have lost only once in the league this season, while United have won only once. Both have one win and one defeat in their first two Champions League fixtures. And tonight seems destined to be discussed primarily in terms of how it affects Carrick’s standing and chances of long-term employment.
Not only was Carrick’s pre-match press conference dominated by discussion about his future – “I don’t need any reassurance. It’s pretty clear. I know the role, I know my responsibilities. I don’t need anyone else to tell me when it’s going well or when it needs to be better. There’s not much I can really elaborate on that. I know we’ve got to win football games for everything to flow and everything to fit into place.” – but Fabregas’s pre-match press conference was also dominated by discussion about Carrick’s future. “As you can understand I won’t answer that question because I think that’s not a very nice question,” he said. “I don’t think that shows enough respect to a great footballer and manager like Michael Carrick at the helm of a wonderful Manchester United side.”
It is all, in short, a bit rum. But for a couple of hours, starting at 5.45pm BST, perhaps we might let ourselves be distracted, if only for a while, by some actual football.
Here’s Jamie Jackson’s pre-match update:
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