Marked for Danila Prokopjev
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ilja Levchenkov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match19 Sep 2026
Angusht left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yelisey Krivokhizhin, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Astrakhan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danila Prokopjev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Semyon Radostev asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match22 Aug 2026
4‑1, and Maxim Malysh took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Astrakhan tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Match19 Aug 2026
The small margins put Astrakhan out
Out, 1‑3 to Mashuk, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Alexandr Bolonin, 35, rolls back the years — 8.39
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.39 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market24 Aug 2026
Dmitry Belov hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Astrakhan can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A goal and an assist for Dmitry Shilov — 7.42
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.42 beside his name.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market24 Aug 2026
Kirill Pluzhnikov has left for Legion in a $21.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.