Marked for Eddy Nadirov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Bədavi Hüseynov out for 70 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Qarabag will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market21 Dec 2026
Pedro Bicalho wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Qarabag hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Pedro Bicalho 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Pavel Vasilyev out for 18 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AZAL will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match5 Dec 2026
Cruel end for Sumgayit as AZAL pounce
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. AZAL scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Pierre Mounguengue, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 8.59
A mark of 8.59 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match5 Dec 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Pierre Mounguengue’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to AZAL.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Tempers go at AZAL
Ruslan Bayramov 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.
The terraces7 Dec 2026
At 18 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.
Loan watch7 Dec 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 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ahmet Doğan Yıldırım has come out of that comparison in the side, and AZAL have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 36. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market9 Nov 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Tempers go at AZAL
Pavel Vasilyev 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
AZAL get the job done against Kapaz
A 1‑0 win over Kapaz, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A mark of 7.85, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
“I watch every AZAL game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Qarabag runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ahmet Doğan Yıldırım is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tempers go at AZAL
Ruslan Bayramov 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
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.
Match10 Oct 2026
Gabala take the points off AZAL
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market5 Oct 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Kady Borges 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Eddy Nadirov is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Player ratings5 Oct 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ceyhun Nuriyev. 1‑0 against Inter, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Sep 2026
AZAL out of the cup
Sumgayit ended it 2‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AZAL can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 7.95, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match12 Sep 2026
The wait goes on for AZAL
6 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Sep 2026
AZAL come up short against Inter
Inter left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match12 Sep 2026
AZAL are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tempers go at AZAL
Ruslan Bayramov 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 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Rufat Ozobic
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Orkhan Guseynov commits to AZAL for another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at AZAL
Pavel Vasilyev 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. Tamkin Ismayilov 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
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Maksim Ramazanov has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at AZAL.