Sabah's Champions League Journey: Lessons from Old Trafford
Joy-Lance Mickels will replay it in his mind for years.
Thirty-nine minutes gone at Old Trafford, Sabah one down but still upright, when Kaheem Parris hung a teasing ball to the far post. Manchester United’s defence had switched off. Mickels hadn’t been tracked. Six yards out, centre of goal, the sort of chance that can tilt nights and rewrite club histories.
He met it, snatched at it, and watched the header skid wide.
On the touchline, Valdas Dambrauskas turned away. In the away end, 500 travelling supporters sagged as one. That was the moment. The sliding door swung shut. United, reprieved, strode through it and walked away with a 4-0 win that looked routine on the scoreboard but carried a very different story for the Azerbaijani champions.
Old Trafford, the summit of a long climb
For Sabah, just being here was the stuff of fable. A club born in Masazir, a town of around 19,000 people some 25 miles from Baku, only came into existence in September 2017, when real estate developer Yagub Huseynov decided to build a team. Last season they became champions for the first time, Dambrauskas steering them to a league and cup double in his debut campaign.
Their Champions League run has been a slog and a thrill. It started on 7 July, the same night Argentina were knocking Egypt out of the World Cup quarter-finals, and wound through four qualifying rounds. The New Saints, Kuopio, Aarhus and Hapoel Be’er Sheva all fell. Each scalp pushed Sabah closer to Europe’s elite. Old Trafford was the destination: the biggest match of the club’s nine-year life.
Dambrauskas himself arrived with a backstory that had charmed neutrals. In 2002, he won £725 on Six Zeros – A Million, Lithuania’s version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and used it as seed money to chase a coaching career. The question now was how his aggressive, carefully drilled side would cope against a United XI that, on paper, looked unforgiving.
Michael Carrick did not indulge in sentiment. He named a strong team: Youri Tielemans and Kobbie Mainoo in midfield, Matheus Cunha, Bruno Fernandes and Bryan Mbeumo in support of Benjamin Sesko, handed his first start of the season ahead of Marcus Rashford. No gifts, no easing in. This was the Champions League proper.
A brave start, then the gulf appears
In the warm-up, several Sabah players wandered the pitch, craning their necks at the stands. Soon after kick-off, they shook that off. Dambrauskas had promised an aggressive press and his players delivered. For 27 minutes, United were hurried, harried, pushed into cul-de-sacs. Sabah limited them to half-openings and the odd dart into the box.
They even carried a threat of their own. Mickels, whose 19 goals last season powered Sabah to the inaugural Misli Premyer League title and who made his Rwanda debut this year, led the line with intent. Behind him, Ivan Lepinjica glided through midfield in the No 6 role, calm on the ball, while Parris buzzed wide on the right, his acceleration unsettling.
But this level is merciless with any lack of edge. The first real lapse and United struck. Patrick Dorgu arced a cross from the left, Cunha ghosted into space and, from close range, finished ruthlessly. One chance, one goal. Sabah’s margin for error shrank to nothing.
Still they held their shape, tried to believe. Then came Mickels’ miss, the moment when the contest might have been yanked in another direction. Instead, it seemed to jolt United awake.
The pressure told again on 42 minutes. Tielemans and Fernandes combined with a crisp exchange that sliced through Sabah’s back line, exposing the inexperience Dambrauskas had warned about. Fernandes took the Belgian’s pass and beat Stas Pokatilov, the Kazakhstani goalkeeper and captain, with a composed finish.
Sabah reeled. Seconds later, they were floored. Sesko, eager to prove he belongs from the first whistle rather than the 70th minute, skipped past Pokatilov and rolled in United’s third. From 0-0 and defiant to 3-0 down before half-time. The game was gone.
Sesko’s statement, Sabah’s lesson
For Sesko, often pigeonholed as a supersub, this mattered. He had scored off the bench in Sunday’s 2-2 draw at Everton; now he had a Champions League goal to go with it. With Manchester City visiting on Sunday for the 199th derby, he has thrown down a clear challenge for a regular starting place.
Sabah’s challenge was different: not to crumble, not to let the night turn into an ordeal. They emerged after the break still trying to play, still intent on pressing when they could, but the sting had gone. United managed the tempo, shifted the ball, conserved energy.
The fourth goal, when it came, was a gift. A mix-up in the Sabah box left Pokatilov apparently unsure of the ball’s whereabouts on his goalline. Lisandro Martínez reacted first and poked it in, a defender’s opportunism set against a goalkeeper’s nightmare. It was an ugly concession, harsh on a side that had tried to be brave.
Dambrauskas could only watch and file it away. He had spoken openly about his squad’s lack of experience at this altitude: 16 players used on the night, and only Veljko Simić had played at this level before. The coach admitted they had “over-evaluated the opponent” at times, that the back line lacked the courage to play out as he wanted. The regret was real. So was the education.
Yet the wider picture refuses to be bleak. Sabah, the young club from Masazir, have stepped into the Champions League group stage and will now face Slavia Prague, Borussia Dortmund, Viking, Barcelona, Villarreal, Napoli and Arsenal. The itinerary reads like a fantasy tour.
They leave Manchester beaten 4-0, but with a taste of what the elite demands and a clear memory of a header that could have changed everything. The question now is simple: when the next chance drops from the night sky, will Sabah be ready to take it?
