Marked for Samir Bayramov
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Nov 2026
Ruslan Dadashov damages knee ligaments — 27 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 27 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad23 Nov 2026
İzzet Çelik 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 Khazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match21 Nov 2026
Sumgayit made Khazar work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A brace, and Eddy Khalilzade takes the afternoon — 8.51
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Eddy Khalilzade provided it, and the 8.51 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Chriso 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 Khazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Chriso was immovable
21 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Eddy Khalilzade has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match24 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Eddy Khalilzade’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Khazar.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 8.09 — 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Namig Sadygov
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Eddy Sadygov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Sep 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 Khazar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Chriso 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 Khazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
The crowd has taken to İzzet Çelik
At 22 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Khazar get the job done against Ravan
A 2‑0 win over Ravan, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad14 Sep 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 ratings14 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Samir Bayramov at his very best
Marked 8.31. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Khazar.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Loan watch14 Sep 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 Khazar, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Dimitrij Nazarov 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.