Although Azerbaijani champion “Sabah” lost 0:4 to England's “Manchester United” in their debut Champions League match, they set a record that went down in the tournament's history.
Modern.az reports that Germany's “OneFootball” published interesting information about this.
The Baku representative played a prestigious match against England's “Manchester United” at the famous “Old Trafford” stadium on Thursday.
“OneFootball” writes that although the Azerbaijani club led by Valdas Dambrauskas suffered a heavy defeat, it took a unique place in the Champions League record books.
Thus, “Sabah”'s starting lineup included citizens from 11 different countries. This is a unique indicator recorded in the starting lineup in the club's first Champions League match in its history.
“Sabah”'s starting lineup against “Manchester United” and the players' countries were as follows:
Stas Pokatilov – Kazakhstan – goalkeeper
Akim Zedadka – Algeria – right defender
Rəhman Daşdəmirov – Azerbaijan – central defender
Aden Makkarti – South Africa – central defender
Timoş Puxaç – Poland – left defender
Umarali Raxmonəliyev – Uzbekistan – midfielder
İvan Lepiniça – Croatia – midfielder
Velko Simiç – Serbia – midfielder
Kaheem Parris – Jamaica – right winger
Kristian Nwaçukwu – Nigeria – left winger
Joy-Lance Mickels – Rwanda – forward
According to the publication, a club's starting lineup consisting of 11 different nationalities in its first Champions League match has not been recorded before in the tournament's history.
Thus, although “Sabah” suffered a heavy defeat against “Manchester United”, it made history with a remarkable record for Azerbaijani football.
