Marked for Rüstəm Əhmədzadə
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 34. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 31, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Masimiliano Doda 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 ratings7 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.99 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Stefano Olaya
“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.
Match5 Dec 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Rüstəm Əhmədzadə’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Sumgayit.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ronaldo Vásquez 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Khazar left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad21 Sep 2026
No hiding place for Keffel
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Keffel, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.27 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 8.01 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 38. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market7 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 Sumgayit, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Aleksa Janković 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Wages eat 766% of everything Sumgayit earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Marked 8.70 — 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“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.
Match5 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Alejandro Alcalá 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Sumgayit will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.