There are evenings that seem to be made specifically for storytelling. Evenings in which the result opens up an endless number of topics, the pitch offers scenes that are destined to remain in the memory and the coach inevitably becomes the first interlocutor to try to explain what has just happened. And then there are evenings like Como's in Lens, capable of entering Champions League history and, at the same time, of giving one of the shortest and most surreal press conferences imaginable.
Fabregas' team crushed the French with a sensational 9-1 scoreline, a score that needs no special interpretation to show the magnitude of that evening. A flood of goals, a dominant performance and a page that will remain in the club's archives. And yet, at the end of the match, everything the coach of the team from Como had the opportunity to tell the journalists was consumed in just two minutes.
One question. Just one. The Spanish coach appeared before the journalists and, after just one question, ended his intervention. No long discussion, no in-depth analysis of the goal, no series of questions to understand what had transformed a European transfer into a 9-1 evening. An almost paradoxical situation, if compared to the magnitude of the success that Como had just achieved.
Fabregas doesn't change his mind: "Nothing has changed"
The question addressed to Fabregas was about the previous European transfer and Como's ability to learn from that defeat. The coach, however, rejects the interpretation that the team had changed their attitude. For him, the fundamental change is much simpler: this time the result was in Como's favor.
"I disagree, nothing has changed. The only difference is the result, the last time we lost and now we won. The attitude was the same, we played a good match against Feyenoord, but we lost because they scored three goals and were more calm than us in front of goal. Against Lens everything went well, the players were charged as always, we are motivated in all the matches we play. We cannot simply say that the last time, when we lost, we had a different attitude than in the victory in France. I don't see it that way, I always try to analyze the episodes: against Feyenoord we certainly made mistakes in something, but we cannot question the aggression and attitude that the boys always show on the pitch."
The concept is clear: Fabregas doesn't want the 9-1 result to change the way the team's journey is assessed and for the coach the key lies above all in the analysis of the episodes. But this is where the paradox of the evening arises.
Como have just recorded an incredible victory, one of those matches that would normally require an endless press conference. There would be questions about the 9-1 score, about the performances of individual players, about the growth of the team, the European ambitions, the management of the match and even about the significance this result might have in the history of the club. But no. Two minutes and just one question.
