From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match28 Sep 2026
Pakhtakor refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 19 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Match26 Sep 2026
Whatever happens, Pakhtakor do not lose
10 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Sherzod Nasrullayev 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.
Market28 Sep 2026
Flamarion wants European nights
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad28 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.69, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Flamarion 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 ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Reyaad Pieterse knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.42 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match19 Sep 2026
Pakhtakor make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Pakhtakor have 4 straight wins of it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 25, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad21 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 Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Three points for Pakhtakor, 1‑0 the final word against Neftchi in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Shots: 7, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Sydney FC to sit and watch. I want to come back to Pakhtakor and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 28. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Match12 Sep 2026
Pakhtakor cannot stop winning
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bashar Resan 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.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Neftchi will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Abrorbek Ismoilov has pre-agreed a move to Pakhtakor, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
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 Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 8.84 — 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
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bashar Resan, and the manager let it.
Match12 Sep 2026
Bukhara made Pakhtakor work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Sep 2026
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pakhtakor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Farruh Agayev has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Match5 Sep 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Pakhtakor did not have in the autumn.
Squad7 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 Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Ibrohim Ibragimov at his very best
Marked 9.15. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Pakhtakor.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Akmal Mozgovoy was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.11. 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Three points for Pakhtakor, 2‑1 the final word against Sogdiana in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.34 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Flamarion 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Aug 2026
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pakhtakor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pakhtakor can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.61 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Hojimat Erkinov has agreed terms with Bunyodkor for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Sherzod Nasrullayev 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 ratings31 Aug 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 22 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Match29 Aug 2026
Whatever happens, Pakhtakor 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2026
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pakhtakor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market24 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.
Market24 Aug 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 Pakhtakor, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Bashar Resan 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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Andijon will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Odilbek Abdumajidov has pre-agreed a move to Pakhtakor, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sherzod Nasrullayev, and the manager let it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Piotr Parzyszek was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. 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 ratings24 Aug 2026
Flamarion runs at them all day
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Squad17 Aug 2026
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pakhtakor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match12 Aug 2026
The cup run ends for Pakhtakor
1‑1 against Obod, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Shots: 17, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A mark of 8.33 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
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
The chase for Abdurahmon Komilov ended with $200.0K changing hands and Andijon out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Sherzod Nasrullayev 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Aug 2026
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pakhtakor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 28 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Market10 Aug 2026
Metallurg come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Pakhtakor did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Sherzod Nasrullayev 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The name of Davron To'laganov has come up in conversations Pakhtakor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hojiakbar Alijonov, and the manager let it.
Match8 Aug 2026
Metallurg made Pakhtakor work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.65 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
A move Reyaad Pieterse would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Reyaad Pieterse is living that version at Pakhtakor, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market3 Aug 2026
Pakhtakor say no — this time
The offer from Persija for Rustam Turdimurodov 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. 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
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hojiakbar Alijonov and Pakhtakor agree another 4 years.
Squad3 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 Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Aug 2026
Pakhtakor may not be able to give Flamarion what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Flamarion wants continental football; whether Pakhtakor can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Bashar Resan 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
A performance of 8.79 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.