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Sabah will make its Champions League league phase debut against Manchester United on 10 September 2026 at Old Trafford, pitting the Azerbaijani champions against one of European football’s most storied clubs in what marks a remarkable milestone for both the team and its Lithuanian manager. UEFA.com confirmed the fixture as part of the 2026-27 competition schedule released in late August, with Sabah having advanced through all four qualifying rounds to reach the 36-team league phase for the first time in club history. The club founded only in 2017 secured its domestic double last season under Dambrauskas, claiming the Azerbaijan Premier League title and the national cup to end Qarabag’s long dominance, according to local reports that highlighted the 28-match unbeaten league run that followed an early defeat.
Dambrauskas, who never played professional football beyond Lithuania’s third tier, appeared on the Lithuanian quiz programme “Šeši nuliai – milijonas” in 2002 at age 25 and walked away with 4,000 litas, a sum equivalent to roughly six months’ average wages at the time. He used the prize to fly to London with his wife, enroll in sports science and coaching studies at London Metropolitan University and begin accumulating the qualifications that would shape his future, Wikipedia data on his early life shows. The coach later described the attention on this episode as overblown in comments to BBC Sport, noting that the real story lies in the determination that followed rather than the game show itself.
A Heavy.com retrospective published last month detailed how the winnings covered little more than a month’s expenses after travel and accommodation, forcing Dambrauskas to take jobs delivering newspapers, babysitting and working in retail while improving his English and gaining footholds in English youth football setups. He worked with academies at Manchester United, Fulham and Brentford during that period, experiences that now add irony to Wednesday’s visit to Old Trafford where he once observed from the sidelines. Those early years also included managing Kingsbury London Tigers in England’s ninth tier between 2007 and 2009, marking his first senior coaching role before a return to Lithuania.
Managerial records compiled on Wikipedia and Transfermarkt place Dambrauskas’s career win percentage at 61.4 across 487 matches, with particularly strong showings at Žalgiris Vilnius where he claimed two league titles, three cups and two supercups between 2015 and 2017. Subsequent moves took him to Latvia’s RFS for a cup triumph, Bulgaria’s Ludogorets Razgrad for another league title, and Hajduk Split where he ended a decade-long trophy drought by securing the Croatian Cup in 2022. The nomadic path continued through Greece, Cyprus and Hungary before his 2025 arrival at Sabah, where he has already added a league and cup double to his collection of 13 honours.
Sabah’s qualification for the Champions League league phase culminated in a 6-4 aggregate play-off victory over Israel’s Hapoel Be’er Sheva in August, a result achieved despite trailing in the second leg before mounting a comeback that featured 33 shots and eight big chances created, Sofascore statistics showed. The Owls, as the club is nicknamed, spent around €950,000 in the most recent transfer window alone as part of sustained investment that has seen total outlays exceed €4.4 million over four seasons, according to an opposition preview from The New Saints website. Dambrauskas has described Sabah as the best team he has coached, reflecting the rapid progress that has transformed the side into a European contender.
The 49-year-old’s journey has drawn comparisons to a Netflix-worthy narrative in Lithuanian media, which noted he became the first coach from his country to lead a team into the Champions League league phase. His tactical approach and ability to build sustained unbeaten runs have been credited with elevating Sabah beyond expectations in a competitive Azerbaijani league long dominated by one club. With the Manchester United fixture now days away, attention has returned to the quiz show origins that provided the initial funds for his move to England more than two decades ago.
