Manchester United 4-0 Sabah: a comfortable return to the Champions League

Manchester United's return to the Champions League, three years after their last appearance in the competition, could hardly have gone more smoothly. Michael Carrick's side beat Azerbaijani debutants Sabah 4-0 at Old Trafford, with three goals inside the first half putting the result beyond doubt long before Lisandro Martínez added a fourth after the break.

Three goals before half-time

Matheus Cunha opened the scoring with a volley in the 27th minute, and United doubled their advantage through Bruno Fernandes in the 42nd. Benjamin Sesko made it 3-0 right on the stroke of half-time, a goal that carried its own significance: the Slovenian striker had not started a match for United since the 3-2 win over Liverpool at the start of May, having been sidelined by a shin injury since. Sabah's Ivan Lepinjica was booked shortly into the second half, and Martínez rounded off the scoring in the 68th minute, turning in from close range for United's fourth of the night.

"I think it was kind of what we set out to achieve — good performance, individually and collectively, throughout the game. The boys that started, the boys that came off the bench, clean sheet, goals, exciting football."

— Michael Carrick, Manchester United head coach

Sesko's night: a striker with Champions League pedigree

Sesko's goal was a reminder of the experience United signed last year: before his move to Old Trafford, the 23-year-old had already scored seven Champions League goals across spells with Red Bull Salzburg and RB Leipzig, including a run in the competition's knockout stages. A shin injury picked up in the spring meant Wednesday's kickoff was his first European start in a United shirt, and he needed only until first-half stoppage time to get off the mark in the competition for his new club.

A one-sided game from start to finish

The gap in class showed in the underlying numbers as much as the scoreline. United had 21 shots to Sabah's 11 but the more telling split was on target — 10 to 0 — and in expected goals, 3.67 against 0.92. Sabah goalkeeper Stas Pokatilov was kept busy without ever looking close to keeping the sheet clean, and Sabah, playing their first-ever Champions League league-phase match, never had a spell of real pressure to show for their share of possession.

Match stats

Europe against domestic form: a contrast

The comfort of this win sits at odds with how United's Premier League campaign has actually gone. Four matchweeks in, Carrick's side sit 13th with four points from four games, having lost twice already this season.

That run — a loss, a big win, a draw and another loss, with seven goals scored and seven conceded — is exactly the kind of inconsistency a routine European group match against a newly promoted side was supposed to interrupt, and for one night it did. This was also United's first competitive fixture back in the competition after a third-place Premier League finish last season secured the Champions League return, ending three years outside it.

Line-ups

Match facts

• 27' — Matheus Cunha, volley (Manchester United)
• 42' — Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United)
• 45' — Benjamin Sesko (Manchester United)
• 68' — Lisandro Martínez (Manchester United)
• Old Trafford, Manchester — Champions League league phase, matchday 1, Thursday 10 September 2026 — attendance 73,685

What's next

United take a maximum three points and a clean sheet from their Champions League opener, but the harder tests of the league phase are still to come. Carrick's more pressing job is fixing the Premier League form that has them mid-table after four rounds, with a return to domestic action before United's next European fixture.