Sabah manager Valdas Dambrauskas has one of the more unusual CVs in football.

Manchester United’s first opponents after booking their return to the Champions League are one of four sides featuring in the competition for the first time, and Dambrauskas will come up against United boss Michael Carrick at Old Trafford on Thursday.

Sabah are Azerbaijan’s champions for the first time, and the path Dambrauskas took to lead them there was far from straightforward. The 49-year-old Lithuanian can even count Manchester United among his former employers.

Dambrauskas and his girlfriend, who later became his wife, moved to England after he won the equivalent of £725 on a Lithuanian television quiz programme based on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

He joined a sports science and coaching course at London Metropolitan University and quickly realised he needed extra money if he was to continue his coaching education. He then landed an interview for a role with Manchester United’s soccer schools programme.

“After we’d paid for our flights and accommodation, we had money left to cover our expenses for just one month, so I needed to get a part-time job urgently,” Dambrauskas told FourFourTwo.

“At the time I still couldn’t speak English properly, but they liked me because of my personality and I got the job. To come from Lithuania and be given that opportunity was a huge step for me.”

Dambrauskas later worked with Brentford’s Centre of Excellence and also managed Kingsbury London Tigers, now known as London Tigers, who were then playing in the Spartan South Midlands League.

“That was a fantastic experience – all of my jobs were part of a great learning process, up to 2014 when I got my first chance as a head coach back in Lithuania,” he said.

That first opportunity came with Ekranas, a club that later went bust the following year before being reformed in 2020. Since then, Dambrauskas has managed in Latvia, Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus, Hungary and Croatia. He has won league titles in three different countries.

In keeping with that theme, Dambrauskas’ Sabah also had to take the scenic route into the Champions League.

Beginning in July, with the World Cup still ongoing, the Azerbaijani champions beat Welsh club The New Saints in the first qualifying round, then overcame KuPS and AGF to earn a play-off against Israel’s Hapoel Be'er Sheva. They scored three times in extra time at the end of the second leg.

After their Champions League visit to Old Trafford, Sabah will play league phase matches against Slavia Prague, Borussia Dortmund, Viking, Barcelona, Villarreal, Napoli and Arsenal.