Sabah FA have been impenetrable at home in this competition, shutting out every visitor while scoring multiple times in each of their three matches. Hapoel Beer Sheva arrive with a drastically altered lineup — eight regular starters are missing from their usual eleven, raising se…
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Sign inAzerbaijan's Sabah FA and Israel's Hapoel Beer Sheva clash on neutral ground in Bucharest, Romania, on Wednesday night in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League play-off. Neither club has ever reached the competition proper, guaranteeing a new name in the league phase this season.
Sabah head coach Valdas Dambrauskas confirmed his squad arrived from Baku with no injured players and is "100 per cent ready." The only known absence is winger Khayal Aliyev, who sustained a tendon injury while on international duty with Azerbaijan in a summer friendly against Malta.
Hapoel Beer Sheva are dealing with a deeper injury list. Defenders Djibril Diop and Pedro Amador are ruled out through injury, while Joao Victor is sidelined with a hamstring problem. Key attacker Dan Biton has not featured for over four months due to a heart issue and also misses out.
Hapoel Beer Sheva have twice fallen at this play-off hurdle before, losing to Celtic in 2016 and Maribor in 2017. The Israeli champions reached this stage after impressive qualifying wins over Vikingur Reykjavik and Crvena Zvezda, winning their last three qualifiers without conceding a goal. Serbian forward Igor Zlatanović, a former Partizan player, scored against Crvena Zvezda and is a key attacking threat.
Founded only in 2017, Sabah are enjoying a meteoric rise. The club from Masazir, just outside Baku, won their first Azerbaijan Premier League title last season, finishing nine points clear of domestic powerhouse Qarabag. Sabah scored four unanswered second-half goals against Aarhus to reach this round and are bidding to become only the second Azerbaijani club ever to reach a Champions League group stage, after Qarabag.
Midfielder Veljko Simić has been in exceptional form for Sabah at the start of the 2026-27 campaign, scoring five goals in six appearances across all competitions. Forward Joy-Lance Mickels has also netted twice in Europe, giving the Azerbaijani side a dangerous attacking core.
Dambrauskas noted that both teams share a similar philosophy—“attacking football, active pressing, and dictating the game”—which should produce an open contest. Hapoel’s defensive record in Europe is formidable, with seven of their last eight continental matches featuring fewer than three goals, but the injury crisis in their backline could leave them vulnerable to Sabah’s in-form attackers.
The second leg takes place on Tuesday 25 August at Sabah’s usual home, the Bank Respublika Arena in Masazir, where the Azerbaijani champions will enjoy passionate home support. The winner over two legs secures a historic place in the 2026-27 Champions League league phase.
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