Repeated falls

On a European night to forget, Manchester United continued their free fall in the UEFA Champions League, slumping to a heavy 4-1 defeat against Italy's Como in the competition's preliminary round.

This was no passing stumble. It goes down in the club's records as one of their worst continental nights. Figures from the global football statistics network "Squawka" show this is the fourth time in Manchester United's Champions League history that they have conceded four goals or more and lost.

The dark run began early, back in 1994, when the Red Devils crashed to a 4-0 defeat against Barcelona at the Camp Nou. It remains one of the most famous losses of Sir Alex Ferguson's early European days.

Almost three decades later, the nightmare returned. In 2023, United suffered an unprecedented defensive collapse, losing 4-3 to Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena before shipping the same scoreline a few weeks later against FC Copenhagen in Denmark. That campaign was the worst for United in their modern Champions League history.

Then came today's catastrophe in 2026 against Como, a club with no European heritage to speak of. United conceded four for the fourth time in their history in a 4-1 defeat, proof that the crisis is no longer only technical. It has become a crisis of identity and prestige, lost in the nights of the Champions League.