Barcelona Sabah FK is the tie almost nobody in Catalonia saw coming. When the Champions League league-phase draw was made in Monaco on Thursday, the Blaugrana came out of Pot 4 with Como at home and Sabah away — and with it, the first trip to Azerbaijan in the club’s history.
Five hours and a quarter in the air to Baku, to face a club that will only turn nine years old on 8 September. It is, on paper, the softest name on Barça’s schedule. It is also the best story in it.
Barcelona Sabah FK: who exactly are Barça facing?
Sabah Futbol Klubu were founded in 2017 by Yagub Huseynov, the man behind Bridge Group, an Azerbaijani conglomerate with interests in construction, hospitality, agriculture, logistics and retail. Huseynov remains the club’s ultimate authority; the president is Magsud Adigozalov, who chairs the Azerbaijani federation’s club committee and carries some weight at UEFA.
The early years were about survival. Then came Conference League qualifying campaigns in 2023 and 2024, and, per Mundo Deportivo, the moment in 2025 when they finally broke Qarabag’s long monopoly on Azerbaijani football. Nine years from formation to a home fixture against a six-time European champion is not a normal trajectory.
The stoppage-time volley that made this fixture happen
Sabah reached the league phase the hard way, through four qualifying rounds. The last of them, against Hapoel Be’er Sheva, was as good as over. Beaten 2-1 in Israel, level at 2-2 at home, deep into stoppage time and heading out.
Then a corner came in with goalkeeper Stas Pokatilov camped in the box like an extra striker, the ball dropped, and right-back Tellur Mütallimov volleyed it in for 3-2. Sabah scored twice more in extra time to win 5-2 on the night. Two days later they were drawn against Barcelona.
A squad worth less than one Barça midfielder
The scale of the gap is easiest to see in the numbers. Mundo Deportivo values the entire Sabah squad at around €17 million — roughly €1m less than the market valuation of Marc Casadó alone, a player who has spent this window being linked with clubs across Europe. Their head coach, in a detail that belongs to no other Champions League manager, once appeared as a contestant on ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’. The staff includes a Galician fitness coach; the goals come largely from a Serbian centre-forward.
Where the game will be played
Sabah’s own ground is the Bank Respublika Arena in Masazır, on the outskirts of Baku, which holds around 8,700. For the Hapoel play-off they moved to the Tofiq Bəhramov Stadium, the 31,200-capacity national stadium, and that is the obvious venue for a visit of this size.
The weather is less of a worry than the map suggests. Even if UEFA hands Barça a January date, Baku rarely dips far below freezing — sub-zero conditions are not the norm there.
When Barcelona will play Sabah
The full league-phase calendar, with dates and kick-off times, is due to be published on Saturday 29 August. Until then, all that is confirmed is the shape of the campaign: Manchester City, Aston Villa, Feyenoord and Como at the Spotify Camp Nou, and away trips to Paris Saint-Germain, Sporting CP, Galatasaray and Sabah. You can read our full breakdown of Barcelona’s Champions League opponents for the reunions and the risks in the rest of the draw.
Hansi Flick’s side, quarter-finalists last season, will be expected to take three points in Baku without much drama. That is the point of a fixture like this — it is the one everybody assumes is already banked. Sabah have spent nine years being the club nobody assumed anything good about, and they have just won four ties in a row to get here.
Sources: Mundo Deportivo and Barca Universal.
