The AZAL Courier
Market25 Sep 2028
David López Pinto hands in a written request
“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.
Match23 Sep 2028
No end in sight to AZAL's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AZAL has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Tempers go at AZAL
Chriso 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.
Match23 Sep 2028
Ravan take the points off AZAL
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Orkhan Amirguliyev 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
No hiding place for Antonio Roble
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Antonio Roble, and the manager let it.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
The cruellest goal, and it is David López Pinto's
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and AZAL will not try tonight.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Maksim Dadashov knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Maksim Dadashov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Agil Bayramov runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
In brief
- Market Tamkin Sheydaev placed on the list
- Player ratings The pass was always on for Francisco Arango