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· collected 2026-08-26 · by Al Jazeera Staff
UEFA's Champions League qualifying playoff continued on Tuesday, with Bodo/Glimt of Norway easing through against NEC Nijmegen, and Sabah of Azerbaijan denying Hapoel Beer-Sheva of Israel a spot in the main competition. Sabah, formed just eight years ago, came back from a 4-2 aggregate deficit to win 5-2 in the second leg, securing their debut in the Champions League with a score of 6-4 on aggregate. LASK of Austria also advanced after coming back from a seemingly insurmountable deficit against Celtic, winning 5-1 on the night and 5-4 on aggregate. The Champions League's main draw will take place on Thursday in Monaco.
Written by the local model on 2026-08-26,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
Sabah, an Azerbaijan football club formed in September 2017, made its Champions League debut by defeating Hapoel Beer-Sheva of Israel in a qualifying playoff. Sabah was just seconds from elimination when substitute Tellur Mutallimov scored in the last minute to force extra time, which they ultimately won. This victory allows Sabah to join other new entrants in the Champions League main competition, including Como of Italy and Bodo/Glimt, an Austrian club that has been promoted for a second season.
Written for “Azerbaijan Football Roster” on 2026-08-31,
grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
This article does not take a side on a contested political
question, so it has no leaning score. That is an
answer rather than a gap: a match report or a rescue can be warmly
or critically written without being left or right, and scoring it
anyway is how approval of a subject gets recorded as a political
position.
No political leaning scored for article 2571 · logged 2026-08-27
The UEFA Champions League’s feel-good story, Bodo/Glimt, are back for a second season, joined by LASK of Austria and debutants Sabah of Azerbaijan.
asserted
story → feel → Azerbaijan
Bodo/Glimt eased through the second leg of their qualifying playoff on Tuesday against NEC Nijmegen, and Sabah, a club formed eight years ago, denied Israeli Premier League champions Hapoel Beer-Sheva in extra time after a last-gasp goal in regulation time levelled the aggregate score.
asserted
goal → ease → score
LASK seemed all but out after a half-hour on Tuesday, trailing 4-0 on aggregate to Celtic, who had taken a three-goal win from the first leg last week in Glasgow.
asserted
who → seem → Glasgow
Still, LASK had already rained scoring chances on Celtic’s goal even before falling further behind, and somehow only retrieved three goals of the deficit when the clock passed 90 minutes.
asserted
clock → rain → minutes
Then Florian Flecker’s close-range header forced extra time, during which the Scottish champions continued to implode.
asserted
champions → force → which
A fifth unanswered goal for LASK came in the 109th minute by Samuel Adeniran, who then had a penalty saved as the score stayed 5-1 on the night and 5-4 on aggregate.
asserted
score → come → aggregate
Celtic drop into the second-tier Europa League.
asserted
Celtic → drop → League
Four more playoff second-leg games on Wednesday will confirm the final entries in the 36-team main phase.
asserted
games → confirm → phase
The draw for those games is made on Thursday in Monaco.
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draw → make → Monaco
Bodo/Glimt’s storied series of wins in January and February against Manchester City, Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan makes the Norwegian fishing town team seem like Champions League veterans compared with Sabah.
asserted
team → make → Sabah
On Tuesday, Dutch newcomers NEC lost 3-0 as the latest visitors to the Arctic Circle suffered on the artificial turf inside Glimt’s tiny Aspmyra Stadium.
asserted
visitors → lose → Stadium
Any hope of a comeback ended after three minutes when NEC goalkeeper Gonzalo Crettaz handled the ball outside his penalty area and was sent off.
Sabah secure debut with late win over Hapoel Beer-Sheva
Sabah football club was created in September 2017 and, exactly nine years later, will debut in the Champions League’s main competition after a dramatic qualifying playoff win, joining Italy’s Como as Champions League newcomers.
Sabah were just seconds from elimination against the Israeli champions, who won the first leg 2-1 last week, when substitute Tellur Mutallimov scored in the last minute of stoppage time to force extra time.
asserted
Mutallimov → end → time
Sabah’s Gabon striker Orphe Mbina then scored with a header in the 101st minute, and Joy-Lance Mickels added on in the 115th to make it 5-2 in the second leg and 6-4 on aggregate.
asserted
it → score → aggregate
Hapoel Beer-Sheva finished with nine players after leading 4-2 on aggregate in the 61st minute, when right-back Guy Mizrahi scored with a shot from outside the penalty area.
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Mizrahi → finish → area
Defender Djibril Diop and midfielder Eliel Peretz were both shown second yellow cards in extra time.
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Diop → show → time
No Israeli team has played in the main Champions League since November 2022, when Maccabi Haifa finished last in a group with Benfica, Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus.
asserted
Haifa → play → Benfica
Israeli teams participate in European competitions as the national football federation is a member of UEFA.
asserted
federation → participate → UEFA
It joined the European confederation in 1994 after its expulsion from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in 1973, following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.
asserted
It → join → war
