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.
Como, 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.
“When I arrived four years ago as a player we changed in a bar, today we’re in the Champions League,” Fabregas said. “Today I spoke with two physiotherapists, back then we trained without a sports center, in a place I don’t remember where it was. 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.
“It’s a huge achievement, this is a squad full of kids, the 15 players who played the most are nearly all under 23. I think that’s marvelous and a masterpiece from the whole squad.”
Fabregas’ post-match press conference was interrupted by his overjoyed players, who threw water over their coach as they sang the Champions League anthem, which was also played on a giant speaker they wheeled into the room.
Four teams were vying for the final two Champions League berths in the Italian league’s final round.
Milan and Roma were in pole position as they occupied the third and fourth spots. They were level on points, two above Como and Juventus.
While Roma managed to win 2-0 at already-relegated Hellas Verona on Sunday, Milan lost 2-1 at home to Cagliari. That saw the Rossoneri leapfrogged by Como, which won 4-1 at Cremonese.
Roma finished the season in third place in the Italian standings, two points above Como, which managed fourth place and a spot in Europe’s elite club competition.
Milan — which was loudly booed at the end of its match — finished the season one point below Como, with Juventus a point further back.
Juventus let slip a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 at Torino in a match that kicked off an hour late because of fan trouble.
Como, which is 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 Champions League could prove to be enough to keep Fabregas at Como, with bigger clubs across Europe reportedly interested in the 39-year-old coach following his impressive early success in a senior managerial position.
Conte’s farewell
Antonio Conte’s last match in charge of Napoli was a 1-0 win over Udinese that saw his team finish second in Serie A. It was already guaranteed Champions League soccer along with league champion Inter Milan.
Conte confirmed after the final whistle that he was leaving Napoli.
Lecce safe
Lecce beat Genoa 1-0 to secure Serie A safety.
The result saw Lecce move four points above 18th-place Cremonese, which will join Verona and Pisa in the second division next season.
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