Marked for Daniel Antunes
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Oct 2027
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zira lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Eren Aydın takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market11 Oct 2027
Daniel Antunes has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zira they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad11 Oct 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zira this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match9 Oct 2027
6 goals as Zira and Khazar go for it
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Zira and Khazar, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match9 Oct 2027
Zira get the job done against Khazar
A 4‑2 win over Khazar, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Marked 9.55 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Qismət Alıyev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Maycon Cleiton
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Match
Zira at the halfway mark
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Sep 2027
19 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market13 Sep 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zira may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Daniel Antunes has agreed terms with Khazar for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad13 Sep 2027
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Egor Bogomolskiy and Zira agree another 4 years.
Market13 Sep 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zira is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at Zira
Qismət Alıyev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match11 Sep 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Jun 2027
33 days out for Ange Mutsinzi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Zira will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market28 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market28 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zira can pretend not to have heard.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Aaron Atkinson is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad28 Jun 2027
A falling-out at Zira
Eren Aydın and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Jun 2027
At 27 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Jun 2027
Ange Mutsinzi breaks a bone — 48 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market14 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zira can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Tempers go at Zira
Eren Aydın 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Market14 Jun 2027
Everyone has stopped pretending: AZAL will make the call about Martins Júnior this week. Zira have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Market14 Jun 2027
One of our own: Araz Madatov joins the Zira first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Araz Madatov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Ruan Renato falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Maycon Cleiton is on it.
Market14 Jun 2027
Ktatau is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Zira has been clear about where Ktatau stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 May 2027
86 days out for Ange Mutsinzi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Zira will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market10 May 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ismayil Ibrahimli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zira the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 May 2027
Eren Aydın in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zira this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 May 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ruslan Bayramov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Zira training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa Djibrilla 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.
Squad10 May 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Matías Jorquera commits to Zira for another 3 years.
The dugout10 May 2027
Martins Júnior has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zira will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market10 May 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Davit Volkovi signs something — a contract at Zira or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout10 May 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.