From our football correspondent
Steady
Match7 Nov 2026
LNZ out of the cup
Kryvbas ended it 1‑0. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Defensive actions: 29. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LNZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.28, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Hennadii Pasich 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
21 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Roman Didyk gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A season average of 7.29 with 6 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match31 Oct 2026
Cruel end for Karpaty as LNZ pounce
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. LNZ scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.99 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market2 Nov 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match31 Oct 2026
8 unbeaten for LNZ
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation LNZ did not have in the autumn.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Tempers go at LNZ
Muharrem Jashari 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at LNZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Kuzyk 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and LNZ know it.
Match31 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Muharrem Jashari. 2‑1 against Karpaty, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
153% of the income goes out in wages at LNZ
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match24 Oct 2026
Still nobody has beaten LNZ
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at LNZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Drambaiev 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 8.94 — 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad26 Oct 2026
9 new faces, and LNZ are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Loan watch26 Oct 2026
“I watch every LNZ game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Epicentr runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Yehor Tverdokhlib
3 goals and a season average of 7.33 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match24 Oct 2026
It needed Muharrem Jashari to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Zorya, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 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 LNZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; LNZ are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ruslan Kotchenko is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match17 Oct 2026
Still nobody has beaten LNZ
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at LNZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hennadii Pasich 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 20, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Oleh Horin
“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.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
“I watch every LNZ game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Trakai runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
31 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tempers go at LNZ
Oleksandr Drambaiev 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Mykyta Minchev is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Denys Kuzyk 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 30, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 28, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at LNZ
Muharrem Jashari 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
Oleksandr Drambaiev 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
225% of the income goes out in wages at LNZ
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 8.93 — 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.72 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match3 Oct 2026
LNZ find a way past Kolos
Kolos made LNZ work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Roman Didyk, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LNZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Hennadii Pasich 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nazariy Muravskyy, and the manager let it.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
19 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Loan watch28 Sep 2026
“I watch every LNZ game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Epicentr runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 16. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Rodrigo Pepe dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Match26 Sep 2026
Point won or two lost for LNZ?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Metalist? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Sep 2026
LNZ win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Veres will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tempers go at LNZ
Muharrem Jashari 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at LNZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Kuzyk 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Muharrem Jashari was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.12. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 9.13 — 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
LNZ find a way past Veres
Veres made LNZ work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings21 Sep 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at LNZ
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for LNZ
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around LNZ are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LNZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jewison Bennette commits to LNZ for another 4 years.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at LNZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Drambaiev 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 9.12 — 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Rodrigo Pepe gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Sep 2026
LNZ share the spoils with Poltava
A 1‑1 draw with Poltava leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Market14 Sep 2026
Victoriia Sumy are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. LNZ will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at LNZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hennadii Pasich 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
LNZ come up short against Shakhtar
Shakhtar left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Wages eat 269% of everything LNZ 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
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.87, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Denys Kuzyk
“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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Sep 2026
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Oleksii Palamarchuk knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Oleksii Palamarchuk's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Market7 Sep 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. LNZ will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Aug 2026
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Oleksii Palamarchuk: 3 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match26 Aug 2026
LNZ through in the cup
A 0‑0 win over Bukovyna, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
31 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Market31 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and LNZ did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A first appearance Ruslan Kotchenko will want to forget — 5.56
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.56, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
Market31 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done: Mykyta Minchev joins from Poltava in a deal worth $160.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Match29 Aug 2026
Whatever happens, LNZ do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Denys Kuzyk 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A defender's afternoon for Denys Kuzyk
Defensive actions: 34. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LNZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at LNZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Kuzyk 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Mark Assinor at his very best
Marked 8.93. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at LNZ.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match22 Aug 2026
Three points for LNZ, 1‑0 the final word against Epicentr in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 17, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at LNZ
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LNZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market17 Aug 2026
Dynamo Kyiv pay $600.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market17 Aug 2026
Obolon pay $210.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market17 Aug 2026
Marko Podoliak has left for Inhulets in a $140.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Hennadii Pasich 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Muharrem Jashari was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.51. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Roman Didyk
“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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Aug 2026
Rukh come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and LNZ did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 24 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Muharrem Jashari and LNZ agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LNZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Denys Kuzyk 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Yehor Tverdokhlib at his very best
Marked 9.08. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at LNZ.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
At 23 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
20 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yehor Tverdokhlib, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market3 Aug 2026
LNZ say no — this time
The offer from BATE for Dmytro Ledvii was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Oleksii Palamarchuk commits to LNZ for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at LNZ
Muharrem Jashari 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Oleksandr Drambaiev 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. LNZ have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.23, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Danylo Kravchuk was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.