Azerbaijani football club Sabah have set a unique milestone in the history of the European Cup and UEFA Champions League.
According to research by İdman.Biz, the Baku club have become the first team to progress through all four qualifying rounds and reach the main stage in their debut campaign in Europe's premier club competition.
The 2026/27 season marks Sabah's first-ever appearance in the Champions League. Valdas Dambrauskas' side began their journey in the first qualifying round and successfully negotiated four consecutive stages.
In the first round, Sabah defeated Welsh side The New Saints in both legs, winning 2-0 and 2-1. They then overcame Finland's KuPS with 1-0 and 2-0 victories.
In the third qualifying round, the Baku side recovered from a 2-1 defeat away to Aarhus in Denmark by producing an emphatic 4-0 victory at home.
Sabah again lost the first leg in the play-off round, going down 2-1 to Israel's Hapoel Beer-Sheva. However, they produced a dramatic comeback in Baku, winning the return match 5-2 after extra time to take the tie 6-4 on aggregate.
As a result, Sabah became the first club to progress through four qualifying rounds and reach the main stage of the European Cup/Champions League during their debut campaign in the competition.
The Baku side also became only the seventh club in history to start from the first qualifying round and successfully negotiate all four stages of Champions League qualification.
Red Star Belgrade previously achieved the feat in the 2018/19 and 2019/20 seasons, followed by Ferencvaros in 2020/21, Sheriff Tiraspol and Malmo in 2021/22, Slovan Bratislava in 2024/25 and Kairat in 2025/26.
However, each of those clubs had already competed in the European Cup or Champions League before completing their successful four-round qualifying campaigns.
That is what makes Sabah's achievement unique: the Azerbaijani club combined a run through all four qualifying rounds with their first-ever appearance in Europe's premier club competition.
The four-round Champions League qualifying format has been in place since the 2009/10 season. During the European Cup era, there was no equivalent route requiring a club to negotiate four qualifying rounds to reach the main stage.
Therefore, according to İdman.Biz's research, Sabah are the first club in the history of Europe's premier club competition to achieve this feat.
