How Azerbaijani minnows Sabah reached Champions League under a ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’ winner with links to Man Utd
No one, including all of Sabah’s board members, expected that the team would make it into the Champions League proper, though; negotiating a potential eight games across four qualifying rounds, starting in early July, was a daunting task. Travel routes from Azerbaijan can be complicated and expensive, too, so Sabah would not get any adrenaline boost from fans in away matches.
But optimism in Dambrauskas’ camp grew after every win. First, a 4-1 aggregate victory over Welsh Premier League champions The New Saints, then a 3-0 triumph against Finnish side KuPS. In the third round, Sabah faced an AGF side fresh from winning their first Danish title in 40 years, and went down 2-1 in the first leg before romping to a 4-0 victory on home soil in the second.
Only Israel’s No.1 club in 2025-26, Hapoel Be’er Sheva, were left standing in their way. Sabah again lost the first leg 2-1, after only one supporter greeted the players upon their arrival at the team hotel, and they were seconds away from crashing out after a pulsating 90 minutes at the Bank Respublika Arena.
Hapoel twice had the lead before being pegged back, and Sabah made it 3-2 deep into stoppage time, with Tellur Mutallimov cracking an unstoppable first-time volley into the net after being left unmarked on a corner. That forced extra time, and when Djibril Diop was sent off for a second bookable offence, Sabah had all the momentum.
Orphe Mbina nodded in Sabah’s fourth from the resulting free kick, and former Schalke winger Joy-Lance Mickels then made it 5-2 with a fine solo goal, sparking delirium in the dugout and in the home stands. “To win a league, a cup and to qualify for the Champions League group phase in one season is beyond imagination. It is very hard work from everyone in the club, from the cleaner to the President,” Dambrauskas said to Flashscore.
“Most of the clubs preach teamwork, but I know from my experience, because I worked in ten different clubs, very few really do. FC Sabah’s strength is exactly here: everyone in the club is doing his job and pulling in the same direction.”
