The Neftchi Sentinel
Market14 Sep 2026
Pakhtakor come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Neftchi did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match12 Sep 2026
Neftchi cannot stop winning
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Neftchi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladimir Jovović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market14 Sep 2026
One of our own: Rustam Shomurodov joins the Neftchi first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Rustam Shomurodov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market14 Sep 2026
Neftchi promote Timur Ismailov from within
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Timur Ismailov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Match12 Sep 2026
Neftchi find a way past Sogdiana
Sogdiana made Neftchi work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
One of those days for Alisher Odilov
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.13, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
No hiding place for Stipe Perica
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stipe Perica, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
A satisfied Farhod Nematov
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Farhod Nematov could afford to be generous.
In brief
- Player ratings Nobody could get near Ikromjon Aliboev
- Looking ahead Neftchi take on the side everybody is chasing
- The dugout Xurshid G'iyosov asks for a word with the manager