DUBAI: When Sabah FC secured Champions League qualification for the first time on Aug. 25, the club was not even 9 years old. Two weeks later, the Azerbaijani champions were walking out at Old Trafford against Manchester United.
Now, after an unforgiving introduction to the competition, they are preparing to host Slavia Prague on Oct. 13, with Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Napoli and Arsenal still to come in a debut league-phase campaign that will see them travel around 34,000 km.
It is a remarkable new reality for a club founded only in 2017.
Sabah won their first Azerbaijani league title last season, finishing nine points clear of Qarabag, and retained the Azerbaijani Cup to complete a domestic double.
They followed that by progressing through four rounds of Champions League qualifying to reach the league phase for the first time.
For Valdas Dambrauskas, getting there had already made the season a success.
“Sabah never experienced participation in the Conference League or Europa League, never passed more than two rounds before in European competition, and now we passed all four and qualified for the Champions League,” he said.
“Of course, we want to grow the club brand, we want to be known, we want to improve, we want to play good football, we want to get some results, but everything from here is a bonus.”
Qualification brought little respite.
Sabah opened away to Manchester United, with Slavia Prague, Borussia Dortmund, Viking, Barcelona, Villarreal, Napoli and Arsenal completing a demanding league-phase schedule.
“The draw was not very favorable for us and we got the strongest teams in the world to play against,” Dambrauskas said.
“But this can be very good and provide valuable lessons for the club, not only in terms of the result on the pitch, but in terms of organization and participation and communication about the club, about the country, about Azerbaijan.
“We need to take those positives in the best possible way.”
Their first lesson came at Old Trafford, where Manchester United handed Sabah a 4-0 defeat.
“The result was not what we expected, of course, but you can understand where we come from and who we are,” Dambrauskas said.
“We’re going to play now against the best teams in the world and we cannot think only about the result because it really can be negative sometimes.
“Even in the local leagues, clubs like Manchester United, Borussia Dortmund, Napoli or Barcelona, they can score four, five, six goals. We know that sometimes we can be exposed and sometimes brutally exposed, like it happened against Man United.”
Yet Dambrauskas did not believe his players had been intimidated by the occasion. His frustration was that Sabah had made mistakes that opponents at this level will punish.
“We know that we could do better because we conceded goals from mistakes that, even when you play a team at a much higher level, you cannot make because they will punish you for the smallest mistakes,” he said.
“I cannot say that we were scared or shaky or overwhelmed by the atmosphere. I think we just had a little bit of doubt, especially if you analyze those mistakes from the tactical point of view.”
Adapting to unfamiliar environments is nothing new for Dambrauskas.
“I’ve been very lucky,” he said. “At the moment, Azerbaijan is my 10th country and Sabah my 10th football club.
“So imagine, in around 15 years, I’ve lived in 10 different countries and met so many people, learned from so many different environments.
“I really believe that this is my strength because I can speak with and understand people from very different environments.”
His route into coaching also has an unusual footnote. Years before reaching the Champions League, Dambrauskas used winnings from Lithuania’s version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” to help pursue his coaching education in England.
It has become a popular part of his story, although Dambrauskas believes too much is sometimes made of it.
“People give too much significance to it,” he said. “It was a game show, a little bit of money, but nothing more.
“It was many years, a lot of hard work, a lot of people, a lot of different situations, different factors and different circumstances that happened in my life and brought me here to the Champions League.”
Now that he is there, motivating his players for matches against some of Europe’s biggest clubs is the easy part.
“I think this is the easiest part of preparation because every player and every coach and every member of technical staff dreams of playing in those types of games,” Dambrauskas said.
“Everybody wants to play in the biggest stadiums and against the biggest teams. So in terms of mental preparation or professionalism, there is absolutely not a problem.
“I think it’s about finding the balance between competing on the pitch, showing that we can play and getting a result.”
Sabah will look to respond when they host Slavia Prague in their second Champions League match.
“We were not very successful in the first game, but we know exactly the mistakes that we made and we will try to improve before the next game.”
The challenge is not only what happens on the pitch.
Sabah must balance Champions League football with their domestic commitments, while their location in Azerbaijan means covering vast distances during the league phase.
According to Dambrauskas, Sabah will cover around 34,000 km travelling to and from their four European away games.
“As far as I know, we have the longest travelling this season in Europe,” he said.
“Somebody calculated that we need to go 17,000 km for the away games. So 17,000 one way and 17,000 to come back.
“If you think that around the world is 40,000 km, in four away games we’re going to travel almost around the world.”
The demanding schedule will also change how Dambrauskas and his staff prepare the team, with less time available on the training pitch.
“For me as a coach and my technical staff, it is about how to prepare the team, how to recover, how to maybe put more emphasis on video analysis and individual talks rather than training on the pitch, because the training sessions on the pitch will be very few in the next couple of months.”
Dambrauskas believes those experiences will ultimately make Sabah stronger.
“We will have the lessons that you cannot buy in theory, but now we will have them in a practical sense,” he said.
“We’re really looking forward to this. I think the players and coaches will try to get the most out of those situations.”
The speed of Sabah’s rise is perhaps best illustrated by the club’s age.
They celebrated their ninth anniversary on Sept. 8, the same day Dambrauskas and his players boarded the plane for Manchester ahead of their opening league-phase match.
“I think it already has been a historical success for Azerbaijan football because Sabah is only the second club in Azerbaijan’s history to qualify for the Champions League main stage, after Qarabag,” Dambrauskas said.
“We have so much attention at the moment from Azerbaijan football fans and media and all around the world.
“That will put the club a little bit on a stage where it can be seen, where it can be heard, where it can be understood what the club is all about, what kind of values it has.
“And this is really positive and we need to use it in the best possible way to attract even more support, even more fans from all around the world.”
For Dambrauskas, the timing of their qualification added to the significance of the achievement.
“When we qualified on the 25th of August, the club was only 8 years old. So the story is really amazing,” he said.
“The people who created this club and what they did in such a short time really deserve the biggest applause and the biggest respect.”
Dambrauskas hopes Sabah’s Champions League campaign will ultimately resonate beyond the club itself.
“Now is the time to promote Sabah FC and to promote Azerbaijan football, for people around the world to understand that football in this country exists and is quite good football,” he said.
“Two teams qualifying for the Champions League main stage two years in a row shows how much quality and potential there is in this country.”