From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match15 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Orenburg, and it could have been more.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.00, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market17 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Krylya Sovetov did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $4.2M for Fernando Costanza, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Matvey Kislyak, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.29
A mark of 8.29 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Orenburg have kept their man, and CSKA Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market17 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Matvey Kislyak again, and this time the name on the line is FC Lorient. CSKA Moscow are listening politely and promising nothing.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match15 Aug 2026
3 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$14.3M was the most the club would pay and Rayo Vallecano were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The deal with Krylya Sovetov is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” KFUM Oslo had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Ivan Oblyakov goes up and wins it — 7.99
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.99 for the rest of it.
Market10 Aug 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Matheus Alves wants continental football; whether CSKA Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ivan Oblyakov and CSKA Moscow agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Ivan Oblyakov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad3 Aug 2026
615 appearances across 24 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and CSKA Moscow know what they have.
Match1 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Akron, and it could have been more.
Market3 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and CSKA Moscow did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
$11.0M on the table at Rayo Vallecano. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Florian Kastenmeier has just signed for CSKA Moscow, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Matvey Kislyak at 21 — 8.12
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Matvey Kislyak did not need any: 8.12, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market3 Aug 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Luciano Gondou wants continental football; whether CSKA Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Igor Akinfeev and CSKA Moscow agree another 2 years.