Manchester United 4-0 Sabah FK
UEFA Champions League league phase, Matchday 1
Old Trafford, Thursday 10 September 2026
Attendance: 73,685 | Referee: Willy Delajod (France)
Manchester United’s return to the Champions League after 1,003 days ended in the kind of professional, high-scoring statement that the occasion demanded. Four different scorers, a first clean sheet of the season, and a 4-0 scoreline against Azerbaijani champions Sabah FK gave Michael Carrick’s side three points and a night of celebration at a packed Old Trafford. It was the club’s 300th match in Europe’s premier competition. It never felt like a classic of the genre — Thursday night, a debutant opponent founded only nine years earlier — but it was exactly what United needed after a mixed start to the Premier League campaign.
The goals came from Matheus Cunha (27), Bruno Fernandes (42), Benjamin Šeško (45) and Lisandro Martínez (68). United finished with 21 shots to 11, 10 on target to none, and an expected-goals figure around 3.6–3.7 against Sabah’s 0.8–0.9. Possession sat at 58–42. The visitors created two genuine chances and hit the woodwork late, but they never put a shot on target. For a club that had conceded six times in three league games, the shutout mattered as much as the margin.
Old Trafford had waited a long time for this. United’s last Champions League appearance had been a December 2023 group-stage defeat to Bayern Munich that confirmed their exit under Erik ten Hag. Two seasons in the wilderness followed. Carrick’s arrival and the subsequent revival — third place last season, a return to the European elite — had rebuilt expectation. The draw handed them the most forgiving possible opening: Sabah, who had navigated four qualifying rounds from the first stage, a club that finished 41 points off the Azerbaijani title the season before last and then won the league under Lithuanian coach Valdas Dambrauskas. The visitors named a starting XI featuring players of 11 different nationalities. Their presence at the Theatre of Dreams was a genuine fairy tale. United treated it as a job.
Carrick made four changes from the side that had drawn 2-2 at Everton four days earlier. Luke Shaw was left out as a precaution. Patrick Dorgu started at left-back. Youri Tielemans, signed in the summer, partnered Kobbie Mainoo in midfield. Šeško made his first start of the season. Senne Lammens kept goal. The shape was a familiar 4-2-3-1: Mazraoui, Yoro, Martínez and Dorgu across the back; Mainoo and Tielemans at the base; Mbeumo, Fernandes and Cunha behind Šeško. Rashford, Maguire, Dalot and Mount were among those on the bench. The derby against Manchester City was only three days away. Rotation was inevitable; the first-half intensity was not.
The opening twenty minutes were patient rather than spectacular. United probed. Cunha forced an early, unconvincing save from Stas Pokatilov. Mazraoui, pushing high from right-back, dragged a shot into the side-netting. Fernandes whipped a cross that Šeško could not quite meet. Sabah sat in a compact 4-3-3, tried to play through midfield when they won the ball, and looked organised. They were not overawed. Old Trafford murmured rather than roared. Then, in the 27th minute, the game tilted.
Dorgu received the ball on the left, took a touch, and delivered a first-time cross that was both whipped and measured. It arrived at the near post at the perfect height. Cunha, arriving from the left of the attacking three, got across his marker and stabbed the ball into the ground and past Pokatilov from close range. First Champions League goal for the Brazilian. First goal of the season. The stadium exhaled. United were in front and the pattern of the night was set.
Sabah almost punished a moment of sloppiness nine minutes later. They won the ball in midfield, switched play quickly to the right, and Kaheem Parris clipped a cross to the far post. Joy-Lance Mickels, unmarked, headed into the side-netting from six yards. It was a genuine sitter. The striker held his head. United were still only one goal ahead. The miss would prove decisive.
Carrick’s side responded the way a side with quality should. In the 42nd minute a flowing move ended with Tielemans showing the awareness that had justified his summer arrival. He cut the ball back from the left side of the box; Fernandes, arriving on the spin, side-footed it into the far corner. The captain celebrated by patting the Belgian on the chest. Two-nil, and the contest was effectively over as a competitive exercise. Three minutes later, in first-half stoppage time, Bryan Mbeumo slipped Šeško through. The Slovenian, on his first start of the campaign, saw Pokatilov rushing out, took the ball around him, and rolled it into the empty net from a tight angle. He stayed on his feet rather than going down. It was a striker’s finish. Half-time: 3-0. Old Trafford was loud now.
The second half was lower-key, as expected. Mason Mount replaced Tielemans at the interval. United kept the ball, created half-chances, and managed the game. Cunha curled one too close to Pokatilov. Fernandes had a long-range effort. Sabah, to their credit, continued to try to play. Tymoteusz Puchacz sent a free-kick narrowly wide. They were not sitting in a low block waiting for the final whistle.
The fourth goal arrived in the 68th minute and carried a touch of comedy. Fernandes took a free-kick quickly, looping it toward the near post. Substitute Joshua Zirkzee, on for Šeško only four minutes earlier and making his first appearance of the season, produced a backheel that caused chaos. Pokatilov and his defenders got in a muddle. Martínez, the centre-back who had started the night as a defender and finished it as a goalscorer, stabbed the loose ball home from a yard. Four-nil. Carrick immediately began to empty the bench. Andrey Santos replaced Mainoo. Harry Amass and Shea Lacey, two academy products, were given the last 18 minutes. The youngsters enjoyed a Champions League cameo on a night when the result was already decided.
Sabah still had moments. Mickels fired wide. Substitute Orphé Mbina clipped the crossbar in stoppage time after a good run and cross from Mickels. Lammens, who had barely been required all evening, produced a late save. The final whistle confirmed a routine, professional win. United had done what they needed to do. Sabah had been taught a lesson in the difference between qualifying and the league phase, but they had not been embarrassed. They had 42 per cent of the ball and 11 shots. They just could not finish.
The numbers underlined the gulf without diminishing Sabah’s effort. United completed 572–624 passes at 91 per cent accuracy. They had 42 touches in the opposition box to 12. They created five big chances to two. Pokatilov made several saves and still conceded four. Lammens made none of consequence until the dying minutes. It was United’s first clean sheet of 2026-27 in any competition. After the late concession at Everton and the earlier 2-0 defeat at newly promoted Hull, that mattered.
Individually there were encouraging performances. Dorgu’s assist from left-back was outstanding; Carrick later singled him out. Tielemans looked at home in a United shirt, combining well with Mainoo, who Carrick described afterwards as having a “massive influence.” Šeško took his chance on his first start. Fernandes, as so often, was involved in everything. Martínez added a goal to a solid defensive display. The substitutes — Mount, Zirkzee, Santos, Amass, Lacey — all contributed to a night that felt like a squad performance rather than a first-XI one. That will be useful with City coming on Sunday and a League Cup tie against Brighton midweek.
Context still hangs over the result. United have four points from three Premier League games. Results have not matched performances, Carrick said later. The derby at Old Trafford on Sunday is a different proposition entirely. Atletico Madrid away in October will be another. This was the easy one. They took it.
Sabah’s story remains remarkable regardless of the scoreline. Founded in 2017, they won the Azerbaijan Premier League last season and then navigated a qualifying path that included The New Saints, KuPS, AGF and Hapoel Be’er Sheva. Dambrauskas, 49, is a former Manchester United Soccer Schools coach whose own journey — quiz-show winnings used to fund coaching badges in England, spells at Fulham and Brentford academies, then success in Lithuania and now Azerbaijan — is one of the more unusual in European football. Fifteen of the 16 players who appeared for Sabah were making their Champions League debuts. They will take lessons from the evening. They will also take pride in having been here at all.
Post-match: Michael Carrick
Carrick spoke to TNT Sports and other outlets in the mixed zone and at his press conference. He was measured, as he usually is, but clearly satisfied.
“It’s nice to keep a clean sheet and obviously win the game,” he said. “Some of the football we played was really good. We were dangerous on transition. I have to give them [Sabah] a lot of credit. They were difficult to play against. The result looks comfortable. It wasn’t always like that. We just did a lot of good things tonight, which gave us a good result.”
Asked whether four goals and a clean sheet constituted a perfect night on United’s Champions League return, he replied: “Yeah, I think so. Kind of what we set out to achieve, really. I think it was a good performance, individually, collectively, pretty much all the way through the game, from start to finish. Boys that started, boys that came on the pitch, clean sheet, some goals and some good, exciting football. It was a good night all round.”
He was particularly complimentary about the midfield connections and about Kobbie Mainoo. “He’s a fantastic player, it’s pretty obvious to see. He has a massive influence on our games. He is a real joy to have. He wants to improve, he wants to listen and it is great to see.” On the midfield group as a whole: “We’ve got really good players. It’s nice to get Mason [Mount] and Andrey [Santos]. There are some good connections and we have played some good football through the middle of the pitch. A lot of it is on wavelength and understanding of where each other wants the ball. Just understanding and developing is something we have done a bit more this season. We haven’t had the perfect start but there are really good signs. It’s always nice to win the first [Champions League] one at home.”
Carrick also praised the younger players he introduced late on and Dorgu’s display. “Delighted with being able to get Harry [Amass] on the pitch — and Shea [Lacey]. It’s something we were focused on as the game developed. It’s important to get the younger boys on the pitch for this football club, so I’m pleased with both of them. I thought Pat [Dorgu] played ever so well. He was a big threat down that side of the pitch for us tonight, so I was pleased with Pat.”
Looking at the wider picture, he refused to get carried away. “We’re always pushing for more. Results-wise, it hasn’t been the start we wanted. We wanted to have more points in the league but performance-wise there’s a lot of things in there that we were looking for and we’ve been pleased with. And there’s certainly things to improve. I think a clean sheet tonight was important for us. We’ve conceded goals in different ways. Collectively as a team we’ve done a lot of good things, and that’s why we’re kind of excited about what the season brings, and not game-to-game so much of getting too carried away. We want to keep progressing through the season, we want to keep pushing. There’s slightly different things happening in the team now that we probably didn’t have last season, in a good way, that we’re trying to get out of the players, and they’re showing that in a good way, so it’s really encouraging for me.”
On the derby: he noted that City would have two extra days of preparation and that Shaw’s fitness would be assessed. He would not assume last season’s derby win would repeat itself. The message was consistent: take the three points, enjoy the night, then reset.
Post-match: Valdas Dambrauskas
Sabah’s manager was gracious and realistic. He had walked out at Old Trafford as a Champions League head coach two decades after working at the club’s soccer schools. The evening had personal resonance even in defeat.
“Manchester United is the best team I have ever faced as a coach due to the quality of players in every position,” he said. “I have to take my hat off to Bruno Fernandes. He is an extraordinary player who completely devastated us tonight. I believe he was involved in all four goals. The mistakes we made were very naive. This is the first time in my coaching career that we’ve conceded goals like this. I truly admire Bruno Fernandes.”
He was proud of his players despite the scoreline. “Regardless of how they did, I am very proud of them. Today there were many debuts — of the sixteen players who went onto the pitch tonight, fifteen of them it was the first time playing at this level, and if you include the coaching staff… it was a debut. Of course the result is not what we wanted, but now we have to learn from both the negative and the positive things and move forward.”
Dambrauskas felt his side had not been frightened but had lacked a little courage, particularly from the back line in stepping up. “We will all go home tonight thinking we could have done a little bit better. I didn’t feel that we are scared and we are afraid but also we didn’t have enough courage, especially from the back line to move up.” He added that you only improve by playing against the best, and that the Champions League journey would give Sabah many lessons. He hoped they would be better in their next fixture.
Carrick, for his part, had given the visitors credit in his own interviews. Playing against Sabah had not been straightforward even if the scoreboard suggested otherwise. That mutual respect felt appropriate. One club was returning to a stage it considers its birthright. The other was appearing on it for the first time. Both left Old Trafford with something: United with three points and a clean sheet, Sabah with an education and a memory that their players and staff will not forget.
Benjamin Šeško, speaking after scoring on his first start, captured the home dressing-room mood. “I think it was perfect for everyone, especially our fans. It means a lot to them, especially when they see so many goals. I think it was great for us in general to give us more motivation for the upcoming games.” On his own finish: “I saw him rushing out, and it was a great opportunity to take the ball away from him to make the goal a little bit easier. Of course I’m happy with my goal.” He hoped for more nights with multiple scorers and said the confidence boost would help heading into the derby, provided they recovered well.
That is the immediate horizon. Sunday’s Manchester derby will test whether the fluency shown in patches against Sabah can survive a higher intensity and a better opponent. Carrick’s United are still a work in progress — four points from three league games is not the start they wanted — but nights like this are how campaigns are built. A first Champions League win since October 2023, four goals, a clean sheet, minutes for the kids, and a professional job done. For one Thursday night at least, the Theatre of Dreams felt like itself again.
The tougher tests are already circled: City on Sunday, then the rest of a league-phase group that includes Atletico Madrid, Como, Roma, Sporting, RB Leipzig, Bayern Munich and Villarreal. Sabah will go home and try to take points from whoever they face next. United will try to turn encouraging performances into consistent results. Last night was the easy part. They made it look that way. That, in the end, is what good teams do.
