Stavanger, 5 November, . Kazakhstan national team goalkeeper Stas Pokatilov saved a penalty in a fourth-round Champions League league-phase match, but his Azerbaijani club Sabah lost 4:1 to Norway’s Viking.
The match was played on 4 November at the SR-Bank Arena in Stavanger. Sabah took the lead in the 11th minute through Orphe Mbina, assisted by Uzbekistan’s Umarali Rakhmonaliev, and Erik Botheim equalised in the 27th. In the 69th minute Zlatko Tripic took a penalty, Pokatilov saved it but could not reach the rebound and Tripic scored. In the 77th minute Sabah were down to ten men: Aiden McCarthy was sent off after a VAR review. Henrik Falchener scored in the 81st minute, and Botheim completed a brace in stoppage time.
Pokatilov wore the captain’s armband. Flashscore rated his game 7.1: among the Azerbaijani players only Mbina, with 7.3, was higher. Sabah are playing the Champions League main stage for the first time: they got there through the play-off, where they lost 1:2 away to Hapoel Beer Sheva and won 5:2 at home after extra time.
What it means: The goalkeeper’s personal success did not save the team: at 1:1 he parried a penalty, but after the rebound and a sending-off Sabah conceded three more goals.
Who benefits: The win lifted Viking to 22nd place in the league-phase table with four points; Sabah, with three points, are 31st.
Background: The Champions League league phase, which replaced the group stage from the 2024/25 season, is a single table in which each team plays different opponents; its results decide who goes through to the knockout rounds. Flashscore is a service that rates players on the basis of match statistics.
