Marked for Agil Mammadov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match17 Oct 2026
No end in sight to AZAL's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AZAL has to find a result from somewhere.
Market19 Oct 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at AZAL, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Bahlul Nadirov 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Tempers go at AZAL
Eldar Kuliev 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at AZAL training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moisés Velásquez 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Neftchi to sit and watch. I want to come back to AZAL and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 10 matches say the rest.
Match17 Oct 2026
Point won or two lost for AZAL?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Khazar? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
35 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for AZAL
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AZAL this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at AZAL training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakob Novak 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
3 matches without a goal for AZAL
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Loan watch5 Oct 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at AZAL, and 1 appearances in 7 say he has earned the hearing.
Match3 Oct 2026
Sumgayit left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
5.40 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 2026
The Neftchi deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Bahlul Nadirov reports back to AZAL with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
26 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AZAL this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at AZAL training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakob Novak 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Mahir Bayramov dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Match22 Aug 2026
AZAL draw a blank against Zira
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Zira defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.