A little over a year – from 'eternal unemployed' to making history in the Champions League

2026-08-26 07:15 © Sabah

Incredible, but it's true – we will have a Lithuanian coach in the UEFA Champions League group stage.

Valdas Dambrauskas successfully navigated all four qualifying rounds of the Champions League with Baku Sabah and will begin his journey in the group stage from mid-September, where he will face the biggest football giants in Europe.

A little over a month ago, on July 23, it marked exactly a year since former Vilnius Žalgiris manager Vilma Venslovaitienė, who spoke with the fans, commented on V. Dambrauskas: "What has that Dambrauskas won? Fired from everywhere. A perpetual unemployed.”

These words are certainly not music to anyone's ears, as at that time V. Dambrauskas was successfully advancing with Sabah in the Conference League qualifiers, where he fell just one step short. Afterwards, the coach ended the 14-year dominance of Qarabağ in Azerbaijan and triumphed with the Baku team.

This season is a different story – after a 5:2 victory after extra time against Hapoel Beer Sheva, he will continue his work in Europe with the Champions League itself.

Career prospects are good. He is only 49, and such achievements should catch the attention of bigger clubs. There is already talk in Split that at that time Valdas Dambrauskas was let go too early, but the fans had to come to terms with the management's decisions.

And indeed, Valdas is not an "eternal unemployed,” Vilma. He is more a creator of history.

He made it!

He joined 🇦🇿 Sabah last season, lost just one league game, and went unbeaten in five matches against Qarabağ – who reached the Champions League knockouts that season.

Sabah were unseeded from the first round and knocked out four seeded favourites on their way to the… pic.twitter.com/AzqN35cX5K

— failed (@unnamedbutalone) August 25, 2026