Different roads, same dream: How Sabah and coach Dambrauskas reached the Champions League

On 25 August, Sabah's Champions League dream looked to be over. Having lost 2-1 to Hapoel Beer-Sheva in the first leg of their play-off, the Azerbaijani champions had twice fallen behind in Baku and needed a goal to stay in the tie as the seconds ebbed away in added time.

It came from an unlikely source.

Tellur Mutallimov had played only 345 minutes of Sabah's domestic title-winning campaign and did not score a single goal. But in the 94th minute, he made it 3-2 and kept Sabah's Champions League hopes alive. Two further goals in extra time completed a 5-2 victory and sent the Owls into the league phase for the first time.

The result capped a remarkable rise for a club that was only established nine years ago, and a head coach in Valdas Dambrauskas whose journey to the Champions League is similarly unique.

Tellur Mutallimov scores the crucial goal to take the play-off second leg to extra time

An unlikely beginning

Growing up in Lithuania, Dambrauskas never had the opportunity to play organised football, but watching the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy convinced him that he wanted to become a coach.

In 2002, aged 25, Dambrauskas appeared on a Lithuanian television quiz show and won 4,000 litas – around €1,160. He used it to move to England, where he studied Sports Science and Coaching at London Metropolitan University and began working in football as a volunteer coach in local youth football.

"I am happy every day to fulfil my dream to work in football, to have the chance to live in different countries and to lead football clubs with rich history and traditions," he says.

More than two decades later, through stints in Lithuania, Latvia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus and Hungary, his journey has brought him back to England as a Champions League coach.

Dambrauskas celebrates at the final whistle against Hapoel Beer-Sheva

A young club growing fast

Founded in September 2017, Sabah endured some difficult early seasons and several coaching changes while gradually developing their infrastructure and first team.

In 2022/23 they finished second in the Azerbaijan Premier League to enter European qualifying for the first time, and they won the club's first major trophy, the Azerbaijan Cup, in 2025.

Dambrauskas arrived that summer, though his relationship with the club began much earlier.

"I was in touch with Sabah almost two years before I came to work here," he explains. "The foundations for success were there. Sabah may be a young club, but it has grown very fast. It is a club built on values, trust and respect. Everyone, from the club president to the groundsman, is pulling in the same direction."

In his first season as head coach, Dambrauskas led Sabah to their maiden league title and another Azerbaijan Cup, completing a famous domestic double. His attacking approach also helped produce a remarkable 33-match unbeaten run.

"The biggest challenge was to convince the players that they are capable of beating anyone," he says.

From dream to reality in eight games

That belief was tested this summer as the unseeded Sabah navigated four rounds of qualifying, first beating Welsh champions The New Saints 4-1 on aggregate before overcoming Finnish title-holders KuPS Kuopio 3-0.

The first setback came with a 2-1 first-leg loss against Danish champions Aarhus.

"Even the defeat in the first leg in Denmark gave us more confidence than some victories," says Dambrauskas. "We knew we could turn the result around."

They did so in emphatic fashion, winning 4-0 in front of a home crowd in Baku, before Mutallimov's crucial 94th-minute intervention in the play-offs.

"For ordinary football fans, Sabah's success was not expected," says Dambrauskas. "Even in Azerbaijan, people doubted that we could go to the league phase of the Champions League. Inside the club, the feeling was different. We knew we were a good team and capable of going all the way."

Dambrauskas highlights the confidence within the club that helped them defy expectations

More to come

Sabah now have the opportunity to find out exactly how far they have come, with the expanded league phase format giving them the chance to test themselves against some of Europe’s elite, including Manchester United, Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Napoli and Arsenal.

For Dambrauskas, this represents the fulfilment of a goal he has carried throughout his coaching career.

"It's been a nice journey, but I want it to last," he says. "I would really like to think that this season is a milestone and much more is waiting for me and the club in the future.

"We will keep working, keep learning and keep dreaming."