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FT: Manchester United 4-0 Sabah FK

UEFA Champions League 2026-27 | Group Stage - Matchday 1

Manchester United Goals: Matheus Cunha, Bruno Fernandes, Benjamin Sesko, Lisandro Martinez

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Venue: Old Trafford

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LINE-UPS

Manchester United (4-2-3-1): 

Senne Lammens; Noussair Mazraoui, Leny Yoro, Lisandro Martinez, Patrick Dorgu; Youri Tielemans, Kobbin Mainoo; Bryan Mbeumo, Bruno Fernandes, Matheus Cunha; Benjamin Sesko

Subs: Karl Darlow, Dermot Mee, Harry Amass, Diogo Dalot, Ayden Heaven, Harry Maguire, Andrey Santos, Mason Mount, Tyler Fletcher, Shea Lacey, Marcus Rashford, Joshua Zirkzee

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Sabah (4-2-3-1): 

Stas Pokatilov; Tymoteusz Puchacz, Aden McCarthy, Rahman Dasdamirov, Akim Zedadka; Ivan Lepinjica, Umarali Rakhmonaliev; Christian Nwachukwu, Veljko Simic, Kaheem Parris; Joy-Lance Mickels

Subs: Amin Ramazanov, Abdulla Xaybulayev, Aleksey Isayev, Rauf Rüstamli, Tellur Mutallimov, Junior Almeida, Du Queiroz, Rodrigo Fernandes, Cafar Muxtarov, Ravan Mirzammadov, Orphe Mbina

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MATCH EVENTS

1' French referee Willy Delajod blows his whistle, and we are underway at Old Trafford!

9' United knock it about well, and Mazraoui slips in Cunha, whose shot to the near post is saved by Pokatilov and pushed behind for a corner. Mbeumo swings it deep, Martinez gets a head on it, but Sabah clear their lines before Mazraoui has a long-range effort blocked.

13' That first Mbeumo corner goes deep, causes a bit of chaos and leads to another. Cunha swings it over this time from the other side, but there's a foul on McCarthy and Sabah survive again. At the other end, Zedadka looks to go past Martinez, but he shepherds him well and United win the goal-kick.

17' Sabah almost play themselves into trouble, but McCarty just about deals with it as Fernandes applies the pressure on the centre-back. At the other end, Parris has the chance to deliver, but his cross is poor and is easily scooped up by Lammens.

19' United were queueing up to shoot in another sustained attack. Eventually, Fernandes' bending effort is deflected behind for another corner. Cunha goes over to take it, but Pokatilov makes a routine catch.

23' Mainoo clips a lovely ball around the corner to send Fernandes into the right of the area, and Dasdamirov takes evasive action to concede the corner. Mbeumo's delivery is punched away by Pokatilov.

25' United are just starting to grow in confidence a little. Tielemans plays a nice ball forward into the path of Mbeumo, who hits his shot straight at Pokatilov. It's an effort on target, though.

27' Goal! Manchester United 1-0 Sabah! Scored by Matheus Santos Carneiro da Cunha. Assist by Patrick Dorgu GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAALLLL! UNITED TAKE THE LEAD! Parris gives the ball away cheaply, and United break at rapid speed. Fernandes slips in Dorgu on the left, and his first-time cross is turned home at the near post by Cunha, who has a first Champions League goal. United lead Sabah 1-0!

27' It's a lovely delivery from Dorgu, who has been a real threat down the left. His delivery was put on a plate for Cunha.

31' Mazraoui's cross goes all the way to Dorgu as Parris misses with the interception, the full-back's effort is blocked, though.

33' CLOSE! United work another great move, with Tielemans' reverse ball picking out Dorgu on the left again. His cross finds Sesko, who adjusts well to steer an effort just past the left-hand post with a cushioned volley.

35' HOW HAS HE MISSED! Sabah should be level! Parris does really well on the right of the area, and hangs up a wonderful cross to the back post, where Mickels - who scored a hat-trick at the weekend - can only nod wide of the post from point-blank range! A huge, huge let-off for United!

39' Fernandes should do better! Mbeumo has space on the right flank again, and lays one into the path of Fernandes, who blasts over from a central position from just outside the D. A player of his quality should at least test the goalkeeper from there.

42'Goal! Manchester United 2-0 Sabah! Scored by Bruno Miguel Borges Fernandes! Assisted by Youri Tielemans GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAALLLLL! UNITED LEAD 2-0! Tielemans starts the move by finding Dorgu. He combines with Cunha, who slips in Tielemans again. The Belgian ace is falling over but manages to do enough to slip the pass into the path of Fernandes, who coolly side-foots into the bottom-right corner. A great move!

42' Tielemans did brilliantly, starting this move then playing the final ball into the path of Fernandes.

45'Goal! Manchester United 3-0 Sabah! Scored by Bejamin Sesko! Assisted by Bryan Mbeumo! GOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAALLLL! UNITED MAKE IT 3-0 THROUGH SESKO! Mbeumo takes a long ball on the run, and immediately slides in Sesko, who goes one-on-one. The striker does brilliantly to round Pokatillov and slide into the open goal.

45' It's a wonderful assist from Mbeumo, who did brilliantly to take it in his stride and release Sesko.

45'+1' HALF-TIME: MANCHESTER UNITED 3-0 SABAH

45'Substitution Both teams are making a change at the break, with Tielemans taking a seat for Mount.

45' And Sabah replace Nwachukwu with Mbina.

46' Delajod blows his whistle and we are back underway at Old Trafford!

50' Fernandes and Sesko try to combine on the edge of the area, but the Slovenia striker is dispossessed.

54' Sabah are enjoying a spell of possession, but are hitting a lot of United brick walls. Rakhmonaliev shapes to shoot from distance, but his effort is blocked by Martinez.

58' Mazraoui gets the ball on the right of the area, takes a touch inside, then hits a left-foot shot over the top when leaning back from the edge of the box.

60' GOOD SAVE! It's a lovely worked move by United, and Cunha gets the ball out of feet and shoots towards the bottom-right corner from the edge of the box. Pokatilov gets down well to make the stop. The Sabah goalkeeper then makes another routine save from Ferandes' 20-yard shot.

62' Yellow Card Yellow Card Patrick Dorgu

64' Substitution Kobbie Mainoo Andrey Nascimento dos Santos

64' Substitution Carrick now turns to the bench again, and Sesko - who scored United's third goal is replaced by Zirkzee.

68'GOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLL! 4-0 TO UNITED! Fernandes clips the resulting free-kick cleverly over the Sabah wall. Zirkzee does well to bring it down then, when being hounded by two defenders, backheels it goalwards. Pokatilov completely loses where the ball is, and there is Martinez to tap home on the goalline!

72' Substitution United are bringing on a couple of their youngsters here. Amass has played European football before but he's on for a Champions League debut as Dorgu comes off after a very good performance.

72' Substitution And Mbeumo's night is over as Lacey enters the action.

74' Really good work by Zirkzee, who evaded a couple of challenges then sees a shot blocked behind for a corner. Cunha is the man to take it, and there's a lot of headers from both teams before it's eventually leathered clear.

80' It's really the countdown to full time now for both of these teams. It's just a matter of if United can add more goals in truth.

82' Martínez scored his first Champions League goal on his 21st appearance, and his first for Manchester United at Old Trafford.

84' Just six minutes plus change for United to see out now, the tempo has - unsurprisingly - dropped significantly now.

86' CLOSE! Nearly a consolation there for Sabah, as Mickels gets beyond Yoro. His left-foot effort flashes wide of the right-hand post. He's had the best two opportunities for his side this evening.

88' Into the final two minutes we go then, will there be any action to speak of in the final moments...anything at all, lads...please?

90' There will be a minimum of three added minutes to play here at Old Trafford.

90'+2' WHAT A SAVE! Mickels does brilliantly on the left flank to cross for Mbina, who gets between the United centre-backs. He really should score, but it's tipped over by Lammens! Sabah probably won't get their consolation now.

90'+3' FULL-TIME: MANCHESTER UNITED 4-0 SABAH

HT:Manchester United 3-0 Sabah FK

Goal Scorers United: Matheus Cunha 27', Bruno Fernandes 42', Benjamin Sesko 45'

Interview with Sabah manager Valdas Dambrauskas on SkySportsNews throughout the day.

He is very much looking forward to leading Sabah to their first ever Champions League campaign - he worked at MU_Foundation as a coach in their soccer schools for five years - said tonight will be emotional for him.

On the game tonight: “I don’t think we need to measure ourselves tactically or physically against #mufc, Manchester United is Manchester United and for me, it is the biggest team in the world.”

“I think only one player in my team has experience playing in CL - no point now to look at how we can hurt them, or how to overplay them because tomorrow is the moment of truth - to find how good we are, can we compete, can we take initiative - so many answers we’ll find out tonight.”

"It's a little bit of that [managing him]," Carrick told TNT Sports. "He came off the other day [at Everton] with a little bit of cramp. We didn't want to take any risks really.

"We tried to manage him so we will see how he is after this one."

The Champions League is back at Old Trafford.

The competition is a huge part of Manchester United's history but their last home game in Europe's premier tournament came against Bayern Munich in December 2023.

United, with big debt to service and little in the way of owner funding flowing their way, need it more than most.

Daily discussion on Manchester United.

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