The Azerbaijani champions managed to hold out in the stadium known as the “dream theater” for almost half an hour. In the 27th minute, after a pass from Patrick Dorgu, the unmarked Brazilian Matheus Cunha scored a goal.
The “red devils” scored two more goals at the end of the first half.
In a fantastic attack in the 42nd minute, Youri Tielemans found Bruno Fernandes, and the Portuguese directed the ball into the net.
In the 45th minute, “Man Utd” forward Benjamin Šeško avoided offside and outsmarted “Sabah” goalkeeper Stata Pokatilov to send the ball into the empty net.
The fourth goal was scored by Michael Carrick’s trainees in the second half – in the 68th minute, “Sabah” defended against a clever shot from Joshua Zirkzee, but S. Pokatilov lost the ball, and defender Lisandro Martinez pounced to score.
The team coached by the Lithuanian also had their chances – “Sabah” took 11 shots on goal and created 0.92 expected goals (xG), but the best two chances were wasted by Joy-Lance Mickels, who missed the goal, and Orphe Mbina, who hit the crossbar.
V. Dambrauskas became the first Lithuanian head coach to reach the Champions League this year, after his team won the Azerbaijani championship for the first time in spring and successfully passed all four qualifying rounds in summer.
Only 9 footballers from our country have played in the continent’s strongest football tournament so far, but none of them have managed to break into the Champions League in recent years.
The “Sabah” coached by V. Dambrauskas will play seven more matches in the main Champions League stage, including against “Barcelona”, London’s “Arsenal”, Dortmund’s “Borussia”, and “Napoli”. The next match in just over a month will be at home in Baku against Prague’s “Slavia” from the Czech Republic.
To advance to the knockout stage, “Sabah” must finish at least 24th among the 36 teams.
Other results:
Munich’s “Bayern” – Budes “Glimt” 5:0 (Jamal Musiala 47′, Harry Kane 61′, Alphonso Davies 77′, Michael Olise 83′, 90+2′)
“Como” – “RB Leipzig” 4:1 (Martin Baturina 15′, Anastasios Douvikas 38′, Assane Diao 54′, Maximo Perrone 90+1′ / Andrija Maksimovic 58′)
Prague’s “Slavia” – “Lens” 2:3 (Daniel Sturm 51′, 88′ / Abdallah Sima 73′, Florian Thauvin 90+1′, Ruben Aguilar 90+3′)
Read more After the break, Keenan Evans led the «Lions» to the friendly tournament final
