Douvikas hat-trick leads Como to a 9-1 win at Lens
Como scored nine times at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis, with Anastasios Douvikas taking three and seven different players finding the net.
By Harvey Watkins,
Como won 9-1 at Lens on Matchday 4 of the Champions League. Anastasios Douvikas scored a hat-trick and six team-mates also scored, so the goals came from right across the side rather than from one player's night. Ruben Aguilar scored for Lens in the 65th minute, and it was the only goal Como conceded.
Three goals before the interval
Douvikas opened the scoring in the seventh minute. For most of the first half that was the only difference, and a single early goal away from home is not usually decisive. He scored again in the 32nd minute, and Nico Paz made it 3-0 in the 40th. Two goals in the space of eight minutes before half-time gave Como a three-goal lead at the break.
At that point the match was firmly in Como's control but not yet unusual. Three-goal half-time leads are rarely lost. What came next is what made this result exceptional.
Four goals in fifteen minutes
Lucas Da Cunha scored two minutes into the second half to make it 4-0. Marc-Oliver Kempf added a fifth in the 53rd minute. Douvikas completed his hat-trick in the 57th, and Mattia Liberali scored in the 62nd. That was four goals between the 47th and 62nd minutes, and it took the score from 3-0 to 7-0 in a quarter of an hour.
Aguilar's goal in the 65th minute stopped that run. It cut the deficit to six and spared Lens a clean sheet against them. It did not slow Como for long, though. Martin Baturina made it 8-1 in the 69th minute, and Matteo Papaccioli scored the ninth a minute into stoppage time.
Reading the scoreline
The spread of the goals stands out more than the total. Seven different players scored: Douvikas, Paz, Da Cunha, Kempf, Liberali, Baturina and Papaccioli. Como scored three times in the first half and six times in the second. No more than eight minutes passed between any two of their goals from the 32nd minute to the 69th. Lens had no long spell in which they could reorganise.
It is easy to read too much into a single result, even one this large. A 9-1 scoreline tells you plainly what happened in Lens on Wednesday night. It is far less reliable as a guide to how either side will do in their remaining fixtures. One match is one match, and scorelines this extreme rarely repeat.
Still, for Como the result was everything an away side could want from a European night. They took an early lead, extended it before the break and kept scoring well after the game was won. For Lens it was a night to move on from quickly.
Goals
- Lens: Aguilar 65
- Como: Douvikas 7, 32, 57; Paz 40; Da Cunha 47; Kempf 53; Liberali 62; Baturina 69; Papaccioli 90+1