Overview
Manchester United will return to the Champions League after a season absent from the European arena.
The last time Man United participated in the Champions League was in the 2023-2024 season, when they were at the bottom of the group with Bayern Munich, Copenhagen and Galatasaray. Michael Carrick will be under pressure to help the "Red Devils" have a positive campaign, although the possibility of competing for the championship is not highly assessed.
Man United entered this match after a 2-2 draw against Everton. After 3 Premier League rounds, they have only won 4 points and are ranked 11th in the standings, 5 points behind the leading team Manchester City.
Man United have won the European Champions League 3 times, the first time in 1968, before winning in 1999 and 2008. However, they have not passed the round of 16 since the 2021-2022 season, when they were eliminated by Atletico Madrid.
In this season's Champions League, Man United will successively face Atletico Madrid, Como, Roma, Sporting Lisbon, RB Leipzig, Bayern Munich and Villarreal.
On the other side, Sabah started his Champions League 2026-2027 journey from the beginning of July. The Azerbaijani representative successively surpassed TNS, KuPS, Aarhus and Hapoel Be'er Sheva in the qualifying rounds to participate in this stage of the tournament for the first time.
Sabah is in good form before the confrontation with Man United. Coach Valdas Dambrauskas' team just beat Zira 5-0 and won all 3 of the first matches in the Azerbaijani league, winning 9 points to lead the rankings.
Sabah also has impressive achievements in this season's Champions League when winning 6 out of 8 matches, and keeping a clean sheet 4 times. The Azerbaijani team is one of the representatives participating in the League Phase phase for the first time this season, alongside Como, LASK and Viking.
Man United have only won 1 of their last 7 Champions League group stage matches, suffering 4 defeats. The unstable defensive form of the "Red Devils" may bring opportunities for Sabah, who possess an effective attack and have scored many goals in their journey through the qualifiers.
Personnel situation
Man United continues to be without the services of Matthijs de Ligt, Manuel Ugarte, Carlos Baleba, Amad Diallo and Tom Heaton due to injury. Marcus Rashford also needs to be checked before the match after having to leave the field in the second half of the Everton draw.
Carrick is expected to rotate the squad to prepare for the Manchester derby with Man City. Leny Yoro, Noussair Mazraoui, Andrey Santos and Benjamin Sesko are likely to be given the opportunity to start.
Sesko may be used more by Carrick after coming on as a substitute against Everton and scoring in the final minutes. The Slovenian striker is likely to be in Man United's starting lineup.
Meanwhile, Sabah has a full force for the away match at Old Trafford.
Joy-Lance Mickels is one of Sabah's most prominent attacking spearheads with 8 goals and 1 assist after 11 appearances this season. The 32-year-old player is likely to continue to start in attack.
Expected lineup:
Man United: Lammens, Dalot, Yoro, Martinez, Mazraoui, Santos, Mainoo, Mbeumo, Fernandes, Cunha, Sesko.
Pokatilov, Solvet, Dashdamirov, Puchacz, Zedadka, Rakhmonaliev, Isaev, Lepinjica, Parris, Mickels, Simic.
The match between Man United and Sabah takes place at 2:00 AM on September 11 (Vietnam time).
