Marked for Ruslan Abdullayev
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad5 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match3 Oct 2026
AZAL make it 5 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now AZAL have 5 straight wins of it.
Market5 Oct 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Shahriyar Jafarov is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Agil Jafarov 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.
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.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A defender's afternoon for Namig Ozobic
Defensive actions: 20. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Match3 Oct 2026
Three points for AZAL, 1‑0 the final word against Sumgayit in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match21 Sep 2026
AZAL up to position 2
11 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match19 Sep 2026
AZAL make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now AZAL have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Agil Jafarov 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 AZAL this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Sep 2026
Qarabag made AZAL work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.50 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Uglješa Radinović, and the manager let it.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Qarabag to sit and watch. I want to come back to AZAL and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 6 matches say the rest.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Mustafa Topcu 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
NK Maribor come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and AZAL did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market10 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vugar Bayramov commits to AZAL for another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at AZAL
Agil Jafarov 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at AZAL training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vugar Bayramov 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 Aug 2026
Vugar Bayramov knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AZAL, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
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Market
Qara Ismayilov is free to find somewhere else
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Market
Experience through the door at AZAL
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at AZAL training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Namig Medvedev 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Vugar Bayramov 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.