Uzbek national team midfielder Umarali Rakhmonaliev helped the Azerbaijani club Sabah advance to the main stage of the UEFA Champions League. This was the result of a 5-2 victory over the Israeli club Hapoel Beer Sheva after extra time in the second match of the playoff qualification, according to UzDaily.uz.
Hapoel Beer Sheva opened the scoring in the tenth minute with a goal from Igor Zlatanovich. Before halftime, Sabah leveled the score thanks to Christian Nwachukwu. Then Gai Mizrahi restored the Israeli team's advantage in the 61st minute.
Rakhmonaliev scored Sabah's second goal in the 74th minute, leveling the score at 2-2. In added time, Telur Mutallimov put the Azerbaijani side ahead with a score of 3-2, thus equalizing the aggregate score.
In extra time, Sabah added two more goals: Orfe Mbina scored in the 101st minute, and Joy-Lance Mickels secured the final result of 5-2 in the 115th minute. Hapoel Beer Sheva finished the match with nine players after Djibril Diop was sent off in the 100th minute, and Eliel Perez received a red card in the 116th minute.
Thus, Sabah won the confrontation with a score of 6-4 on aggregate over the two matches, despite losing 1-2 in the first match in Israel.
This success makes Sabah the second Azerbaijani club in history to qualify for the Champions League qualifying rounds after Karabakh, which reached the group stage in the 2017/18 season and the main stage in the 2025/26 season. Furthermore, Sabah becomes the fourth Azerbaijani team to reach the main stage of any European club tournament, joining Karabakh, Neftchi, and Gabala.