The 17:45 BST game in Baku was the first meeting between the two clubs, according to UEFA's pre-match facts and stats (in French). It was also Sabah's first Champions League season. Both teams arrived without a point: Sabah had lost 4-0 at Manchester United on matchday 1 and Slavia had lost 3-2 at home to Lens. The other 17 games of the round are covered in our matchday 2 preview.
How Sabah won in Baku
Each coach picked a 4-2-3-1. Sabah, coached by Valdas Dambrauskas, had Stas Pokatilov in goal and Parris, Mickels and Veljko Simic among the starters. Slavia's eleven included Jakub Markovic in goal, Tomás Chorý and Lukás Provod. The first half finished goalless, and both goals came from Sabah after the break.
- 49' Sabah FK 1-0 Slavia Prague: Kaheem Parris, a left-footed shot from the center of the box into the bottom left corner, assisted by Ivan Lepinjica after a fast break.
- 88' Sabah FK 2-0 Slavia Prague: Joy-Lance Mickels, a left-footed shot from long range on the left into the center of the goal, assisted by substitute Patrick Orphe M'Bina.
Parris had already had the ball in the net once: beIN Sports reported that his effort in the 17th minute was ruled out for offside after a VAR review. The second goal came from a Slavia error. According to beIN Sports, Mickels scored after goalkeeper Markovic lost the ball; M'Bina, who had come on in the 73rd minute, won it and laid it off, as Sofascore described it, 15 minutes after his introduction.
A ruled-out goal and two clearances off the line
Slavia had more of the ball and more of the shots, and Sabah's defense held. beIN Sports reported two clearances off the line: Steve Solvet stopped a shot from Chorý before the break, and Akim Zedadka blocked Provod's effort in the 82nd minute, when Slavia appealed for handball and VAR did not award a penalty. Pokatilov made six saves, and Sofascore counted eight shots from Provod alone.
Slavia's changes came first. In the 62nd minute Mubarak Suleiman replaced Tomás Holes and Wiktor Nowak replaced Michal Sadílek; in the 73rd Samuel Isife came on for Tomás Vlcek and Mojmír Chytil for Chorý, and in the 75th Oskar Kubiak replaced Ange N'Guessan. Kubiak was booked two minutes later. Sabah took off Solvet in the 72nd minute, six minutes after his yellow card, bringing on Rahman Dashdamirov, then sent on M'Bina for Parris and Christian Nwachukwu for Du Queiroz in the 73rd and Abdulakh Khaybulaev for Simic in the 86th.
Sabah were booked three times: Simic in the 14th minute, Solvet in the 66th and Zedadka in the 74th. Slavia's two yellow cards went to Emmanuel Dennis Ayaosi in the 67th and Kubiak in the 77th. The referee, Sebastian Gishamer of Austria according to report.az, sent nobody off and gave no penalty.
Sabah vs Slavia Prague: defense against possession
| Stat | Sabah FK | Slavia Prague |
|---|---|---|
| Possession | 44.8% | 55.2% |
| Shots | 13 | 18 |
| Shots on target | 6 | 8 |
| Corners | 4 | 6 |
| Fouls | 15 | 14 |
| Yellow cards | 3 | 2 |
| Red cards | 0 | 0 |
| Offsides | 2 | 4 |
| Goalkeeper saves | 6 | 4 |
| Passes (completed) | 341 (252) | 403 (315) |
Slavia had 18 shots to Sabah's 13 and eight on target to six, and won six corners to four. They completed 78% of their passes to Sabah's 74% and sent in 26 crosses to Sabah's eight. Sabah's numbers were defensive ones: 18 tackles to Slavia's 13, 10 interceptions to three and 28 clearances to 21. Slavia were caught offside four times. The UEFA preview noted that Sabah had won all four of their home Champions League games this season, qualifiers included, and this result extends that home run. A streak like that is the kind of pattern our study of home advantage across six leagues measures at league level.
Sabah's first win, Slavia's second defeat
Sabah now have three points from two league-phase games: one win, one defeat, two goals scored and four conceded. report.az called it Sabah's first win in the league phase and the first victory by an Azerbaijani club over a Czech team.
Slavia Prague have lost both games and have no points, with two goals scored and five conceded. Before kickoff, UEFA's notes listed Slavia as winless in 16 European matches and without a win in their last 20 Champions League games, the last one a 2-1 home win over Steaua București in September 2007. This defeat extends both runs. Lens, who beat Slavia on matchday 1, also played on Tuesday: see our Lens v Sporting report. Wednesday's results settled the order: Sabah 22nd of 36 in the league-phase table and Slavia 31st, after two of the eight league-phase games; their next opponents were higher up, Borussia Dortmund in 18th and Fenerbahce in 28th.
Sabah host Dortmund, Slavia visit Fenerbahce
Domestic fixtures fill the gap, and then both clubs are in Europe again on the same evening:
- Sabah FK: at home to Borussia Dortmund, Tuesday 20 October 2026, 17:45 BST.
- Slavia Prague: away at Fenerbahce, Tuesday 20 October 2026, 17:45 BST.
Dortmund's domestic form is tracked in our Bundesliga table.
How we put this together: ESPN's match data is the source for the goals, assists, cards, substitutions, lineups and team stats; the clubs' records and their places in the 36-team table after matchday 2 are our count of ESPN full-time results at three points for a win. The reporting is from report.az, beIN Sports, Sofascore and UEFA's pre-match facts and stats, and we saw no post-match quotes before publishing.