From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 46. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match14 Aug 2027
The run at home goes on for Qarabag
13 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Market16 Aug 2027
Sporting Cristal did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $2.5M for Renato Solís, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Market16 Aug 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Qarabag can pretend not to have heard.
Market16 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Qarabag have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market16 Aug 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Silvester Shkalla will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Qarabag the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match14 Aug 2027
Nobody wants to play Qarabag right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Qarabag
Pedro Bicalho and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The terraces16 Aug 2027
Qarabag spend $2.5M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $2.5M for Renato Solís, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market9 Aug 2027
“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.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
$2.5M on the table at Sporting Cristal. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Dynamo Kyiv wanted more than $3.4M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Qarabag asked and Avellino said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market9 Aug 2027
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.
Boardroom9 Aug 2027
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mamadou Diarra has agreed terms with Neftchi for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Kady Borges in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Qarabag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market9 Aug 2027
Only the photograph left for Mamadou Diarra
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mamadou Diarra will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Qarabag the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abiodun Toheeb is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market2 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
No deal for Andrea Ciofi at that price
Qarabag offered $3.5M; Cesena said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Market2 Aug 2027
Ardit Peposhi has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Qarabag they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market2 Aug 2027
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Toral Bayramov wants continental football; whether Qarabag can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Pedro Bicalho 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Qarabag
Musa Qurbanlı and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Market2 Aug 2027
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Qarabag hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Pro Patria have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market26 Jul 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Kady Borges had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Match26 Jul 2027
The view from the top for Qarabag
46 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
The offer went to Dynamo Kyiv this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
The offer went to Cesena this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Qarabag
Kady Borges and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Market26 Jul 2027
Luka Caculović has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Qarabag they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Qarabag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Toral Bayramov 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.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tammeka have kept their man, and Qarabag go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market26 Jul 2027
Dani Bolt wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Qarabag hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market19 Jul 2027
“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 Qarabag, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
No deal for Mattia Maita at that price
Qarabag offered $2.0M; Benevento said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Qarabag may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market19 Jul 2027
Qarabag say no — this time
The offer from Liepaja for Abiodun Toheeb 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.
Market19 Jul 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Qarabag they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Qarabag
Kady Borges and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Universitario have kept their man, and Qarabag go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market19 Jul 2027
Gabala pay $240.0K, 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Toral Bayramov 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
Market12 Jul 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Qarabag people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market12 Jul 2027
“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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
$1.4M on the table at Benevento. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sport Huancayo have kept their man, and Qarabag go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market12 Jul 2027
“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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Kady Borges in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Qarabag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Qarabag
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedro Bicalho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market12 Jul 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Orkhan Khalilzade is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
Toral Bayramov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Qarabag will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market5 Jul 2027
“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 Qarabag, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market5 Jul 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Qarabag may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market5 Jul 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Qarabag is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market5 Jul 2027
Pedro Bicalho wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Qarabag hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad5 Jul 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Qarabag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Qarabag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Toral Bayramov 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.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
The manager makes an example of Bruno Langa
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match28 Jun 2027
46 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Market28 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market28 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Qarabag can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
No thanks: Igor Leschuk rejects the move
Qarabag had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dinamo Moscow, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market28 Jun 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Qarabag is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad28 Jun 2027
A falling-out at Qarabag
Pedro Bicalho and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Jun 2027
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
No deal for Luis Chávez at that price
Qarabag offered $300.0K; Dinamo Moscow said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad28 Jun 2027
At 26 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Jun 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Qarabag have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The terraces21 Jun 2027
Supporters turn on the $2.8M sale of Matheus Silva
He is going to Khazar, the club has $2.8M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Qarabag offered $2.8M; Albion said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Market21 Jun 2027
Khazar pay $2.8M, 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.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
$1.1M on the table at Dinamo Moscow. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market21 Jun 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Qarabag is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 Jun 2027
At 26 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Qarabag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Bicalho 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Qarabag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Jun 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
Ceyhun Nuriyev: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Qarabag have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market14 Jun 2027
“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 Qarabag, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market14 Jun 2027
Qarabag say no — this time
The offer from Kapaz for Abiodun Toheeb 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.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Qarabag offered $1.3M; Sumgayit said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Market14 Jun 2027
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Toral Bayramov wants continental football; whether Qarabag can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Kady Borges in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Qarabag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Qarabag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Toral Bayramov 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
Upbeat
Market7 Jun 2027
Kady Borges hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Qarabag can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
The offer went to Albion this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market7 Jun 2027
Gabala pay $2.1M, 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.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
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.
Market7 Jun 2027
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Pedro Bicalho wants continental football; whether Qarabag can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
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.
Market7 Jun 2027
Only the photograph left for Ardit Peposhi
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ardit Peposhi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Qarabag the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
$260.0K on the table at Dinamo Moscow. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Kady Borges 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
Match31 May 2027
First, on 46 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Squad31 May 2027
Words exchanged at Qarabag
Kady Borges and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Market31 May 2027
Luka Caculović has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Qarabag they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad31 May 2027
Toral Bayramov 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.
Market31 May 2027
“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.
The dugout31 May 2027
“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.
The dugout31 May 2027
When it matters, Kady Borges plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout31 May 2027
“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.
Market31 May 2027
Bəhlul Mustafazadə returns from a loan that gave him nothing
0 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Boardroom24 May 2027
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Match19 May 2027
Whatever happens, Qarabag do not lose
21 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.
Match19 May 2027
Qarabag through in the cup
A 2‑1 win over Neftchi, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 33. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match19 May 2027
Qarabag win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 123th minute. Neftchi will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad24 May 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Qarabag have had the benefit of it.
Match19 May 2027
Nobody wins at Qarabag
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad24 May 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Reda Khadra
17 goals and a season average of 7.35 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
In brief
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Market
Toral Bayramov wants to know where this is going
-
Squad
Words exchanged at Qarabag
-
Squad
Words at Qarabag training over how hard people work
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 May 2027
Pedro Bicalho wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Qarabag hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market17 May 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Qarabag is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad17 May 2027
Pedro Bicalho 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Qarabag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Toral Bayramov 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.
The dugout17 May 2027
When it matters, Reda Khadra plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market17 May 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Qarabag know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout17 May 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Qarabag, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout17 May 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Qarabag. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad17 May 2027
Questions about Luka Caculović on the training pitch
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom10 May 2027
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Silvester Shkalla 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.
Market10 May 2027
Ardit Peposhi has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Qarabag they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Qarabag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Bicalho 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Martin Zlomislić 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.
The dugout10 May 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout10 May 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 May 2027
46 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Squad3 May 2027
A falling-out at Qarabag
Pedro Bicalho and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 May 2027
Toral Bayramov 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.
The dugout3 May 2027
When it matters, Kady Borges plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout3 May 2027
Kady Borges knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Qarabag, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market3 May 2027
The name of Marko Janković keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Qarabag say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Qarabag
Kady Borges and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Qarabag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Toral Bayramov 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.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Qarabag, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market26 Apr 2027
The name of Musa Qurbanlı keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Qarabag say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Qarabag. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Qarabag have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market19 Apr 2027
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Qarabag can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Qarabag
Kady Borges and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Qarabag
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedro Bicalho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Reda Khadra gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Reda Khadra is on it.
Market19 Apr 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Pedro Bicalho’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Qarabag, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Squad19 Apr 2027
The word out of the training ground is that he has been the sharpest man there all week. It is the quietest story a paper carries and it usually runs the week before somebody's run in the side begins.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market12 Apr 2027
“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 Qarabag, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom12 Apr 2027
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Ardit Peposhi has agreed terms with Neftchi for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Market12 Apr 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Qarabag is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Qarabag
Kady Borges and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Qarabag
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Toral Bayramov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market12 Apr 2027
“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.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dimitrij Nazarov, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Toral Bayramov is on it.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Pedro Bicalho knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Qarabag, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match5 Apr 2027
First, on 46 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Market5 Apr 2027
“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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Kady Borges 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.
Market5 Apr 2027
Dani Bolt 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.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Kady Borges has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Qarabag will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Pedro Bicalho knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Pedro Bicalho trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Qarabag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bədavi Hüseynov 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.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Elvin Cəfərquliyev, and the manager let it.
Market5 Apr 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marko Janković signs something — a contract at Qarabag or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market29 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Pedro Bicalho 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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Jaime Báez 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Qarabag
Samuel Lobato and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Matheus Silva gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Matheus Silva is on it.
Market29 Mar 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Musa Qurbanlı signs something — a contract at Qarabag or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Qarabag
Pedro Bicalho and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Toral Bayramov 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
5 Qarabag players away with their countries
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 5 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Reda Khadra gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Reda Khadra is on it.
Market22 Mar 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Pedro Bicalho’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Qarabag that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market15 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Reda Khadra in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Qarabag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Qarabag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bədavi Hüseynov 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.
Market15 Mar 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Kady Borges’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match8 Mar 2027
First, on 46 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Squad8 Mar 2027
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Kady Borges 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kevin Medina and Qarabag agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Reda Khadra 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.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Taofeek Ismaheel, and the manager let it.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
Kady Borges gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Kady Borges is on it.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
The fine is internal, the amount is nobody's business, and the fact that everybody at Qarabag knows about it by lunchtime is exactly the point of it.
Market8 Mar 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marko Janković signs something — a contract at Qarabag or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match24 Feb 2027
Still nobody has beaten Qarabag
The unbeaten run reaches 20. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match24 Feb 2027
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Kady Borges obliged against Zira. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Qarabag.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
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.
Market1 Mar 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Musa Qurbanlı makes the wrong kind of headline
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Up for the corner, and Kady Borges delivers — 7.97
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Kady Borges scored, was marked 7.97, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Reda Khadra is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.35 with 17 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match24 Feb 2027
Qarabag make home a hard place to visit
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Kady Borges in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Qarabag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
-
Squad
Words at Qarabag training over how hard people work
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Match
Another one collected away from home
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Player ratings
Ninety minutes of Reda Khadra at his very best
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market22 Feb 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Qarabag have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Qarabag
Kady Borges and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Qarabag
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaime Báez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market22 Feb 2027
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Qarabag hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad22 Feb 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Qarabag can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“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.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Kady Borges 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.
Market22 Feb 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Pedro Bicalho’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Qarabag may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market15 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Qarabag
Kady Borges and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Qarabag
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedro Bicalho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Kady Borges knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kady Borges trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Dimitrij Nazarov is on it.
Market15 Feb 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Kady Borges’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Where he used to play does most of his talking for him at Qarabag. The room defers to it, the kids study it, and the only thing that can puncture it is a bad month.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Taofeek Ismaheel has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match8 Feb 2027
First, on 46 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Market8 Feb 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Qarabag can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 Feb 2027
161 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Careers like that are not built on purpose any more, and Qarabag know exactly what they have.
Market8 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Qarabag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Qarabag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Toral Bayramov 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.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
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.
Market8 Feb 2027
Qarabag may not be able to give Dani Bolt what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Dani Bolt wants continental football; whether Qarabag can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market1 Feb 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market1 Feb 2027
“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.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad1 Feb 2027
10 seasons and 161 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Qarabag close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Market1 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market1 Feb 2027
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Pedro Bicalho wants continental football; whether Qarabag can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Pedro Bicalho 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Toral Bayramov 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
Market25 Jan 2027
“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.
Market25 Jan 2027
Qarabag say no — this time
The offer from Dinamo Tbilisi for Taofeek Ismaheel 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Qarabag have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Reda Khadra 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Qarabag
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedro Bicalho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Qarabag asked and Millwall said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
Wages eat 120% of everything Qarabag 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Jaime Báez has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Qarabag know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces18 Jan 2027
Qarabag sell a favourite for $7.2M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Mateusz Kochalski was one of the reasons people came, and $7.2M does not replace that by itself.
Market18 Jan 2027
“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 Qarabag, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market18 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Qarabag
Kady Borges and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Qarabag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Toral Bayramov 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.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
A loan move for Jaime Báez is in the works
Qarabag have made the call to Latina. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“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.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market11 Jan 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Qarabag have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match11 Jan 2027
46 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Vüqar Mustafayev: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Qarabag have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market11 Jan 2027
Qarabag say no — this time
The offer from Inter for Bəhlul Mustafazadə 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Ardit Peposhi hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Qarabag can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
No thanks: Ian Vera rejects the move
Qarabag had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Estudiantes, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Kady Borges 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Qarabag asked and Khazar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Qarabag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bədavi Hüseynov 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
Upbeat
Market4 Jan 2027
“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.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad4 Jan 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Qarabag have had the benefit of it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Qarabag
Musa Qurbanlı and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Qarabag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Bicalho 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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Qarabag will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Market4 Jan 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Matheus Silva has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Qarabag.
Market4 Jan 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Qarabag heard it as anything else.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 Dec 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Qarabag
Kady Borges and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Toral Bayramov 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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages swallow 178% of the Qarabag income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Qarabag are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Pedro Bicalho knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Pedro Bicalho trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad28 Dec 2026
The formation has left Mamadou Diarra behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Qarabag will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market28 Dec 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Pedro Bicalho’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Dec 2026
Pedro Bicalho wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Qarabag hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Qarabag
Pedro Bicalho and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Qarabag
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bədavi Hüseynov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Dimitrij Nazarov is on it.
Market21 Dec 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Kady Borges’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Market21 Dec 2026
Qarabag have let the market know Patrick Touray can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Kady Borges keeps his manager's vote
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Kady Borges plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Dec 2026
19 unbeaten for Qarabag
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 19 matches without defeat is a foundation Qarabag did not have in the autumn.
Match14 Dec 2026
The view from the top for Qarabag
46 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Match14 Dec 2026
Full time on the season at Qarabag
Position 1 on 46 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Dec 2026
Nobody wins at Qarabag
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Match12 Dec 2026
The run is over for Qarabag
7 matches without defeat, and then Neftchi. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Qarabag
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedro Bicalho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match12 Dec 2026
Qarabag are at home on the road
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match2 Dec 2026
Cup progress for Qarabag
A 4‑1 win over Kapaz, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match5 Dec 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against Inter, and it could have been more.
Match5 Dec 2026
Qarabag cannot stop winning
7 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.27 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Dimitrij Nazarov, 36, rolls back the years — 8.31
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.31 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Reda Khadra is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.36 with 17 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Market7 Dec 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Pedro Bicalho wants continental football; whether Qarabag can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match28 Nov 2026
Qarabag 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.
Market30 Nov 2026
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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Reda Khadra is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.33 with 15 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Qarabag
Kady Borges and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match28 Nov 2026
Qarabag get the job done against Kapaz
A 2‑1 win over Kapaz, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
177% of the income goes out in wages at Qarabag
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.
Match28 Nov 2026
Qarabag make home a hard place to visit
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Marked 8.52 — 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 ratings30 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Emmanuel Addai at his very best
Marked 8.36. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Qarabag.
In brief
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Player ratings
One of those days for Reda Khadra
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The dugout
Kevin Medina left out for the big one
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match21 Nov 2026
AZAL will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Qarabag were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.41 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match21 Nov 2026
Nobody wants to play Qarabag right now
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Qarabag
Kady Borges and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Reda Khadra
14 goals and a season average of 7.30 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Qarabag
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedro Bicalho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Oleksiy Kashchuk at his very best
Marked 8.49. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Qarabag.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Kady Borges at his very best
Marked 8.27. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Qarabag.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
A promise honoured for Bruno Langa
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Qarabag told Bruno Langa something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match16 Nov 2026
The view from the top for Qarabag
36 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market16 Nov 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Qarabag heard it as anything else.
Match14 Nov 2026
Nobody wants to play Qarabag right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Kady Borges 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
12 goals and a season average of 7.26. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match14 Nov 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Ceyhun Nuriyev’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Qarabag.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.25, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 39. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match7 Nov 2026
13 unbeaten for Qarabag
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 13 matches without defeat is a foundation Qarabag did not have in the autumn.
Market9 Nov 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Qarabag heard it as anything else.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Kady Borges in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Qarabag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match7 Nov 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Reda Khadra’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Qarabag.
Market9 Nov 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Rashad Dadashov 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Reda Khadra
11 goals and a season average of 7.22 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.35 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Looking ahead9 Nov 2026
The big one: Zira come into view
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Qarabag will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match31 Oct 2026
12 unbeaten for Qarabag
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 12 matches without defeat is a foundation Qarabag did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Marko Janković pops up at the right end — 7.98
7.98, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Market2 Nov 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Qarabag heard it as anything else.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Qarabag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Bicalho 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 177% of everything Qarabag 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Reda Khadra’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Qarabag.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Oleksiy Kashchuk was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.35. 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 ratings2 Nov 2026
Marked 8.03 — 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Samuel Lobato 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
Squad26 Oct 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
11 unbeaten for Qarabag
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 11 matches without defeat is a foundation Qarabag did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Qarabag
Pedro Bicalho and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Qarabag
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Toral Bayramov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Pedro Bicalho is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Market26 Oct 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Vüqar Mustafayev has his answer from Qarabag; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Match24 Oct 2026
It needed Musa Qurbanlı to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Sumgayit, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Pedro Bicalho knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Pedro Bicalho trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Oct 2026
26 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Match17 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Qarabag 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.
Squad19 Oct 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 Qarabag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings19 Oct 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Match17 Oct 2026
The run is over for Qarabag
4 matches without defeat, and then Ravan. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.49 on the card, and the Qarabag support went home talking about one name.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Bədavi Hüseynov 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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings12 Oct 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
Qarabag make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Qarabag have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Kady Borges in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Qarabag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Qarabag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Bicalho 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Reda Khadra’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Qarabag.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.12, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A quiet fortnight at Qarabag
With 6 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Market12 Oct 2026
Qarabag may not be able to give Dani Bolt what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Dani Bolt wants continental football; whether Qarabag can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Match12 Oct 2026
Halfway: Qarabag sit in position 1
25 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market5 Oct 2026
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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Qarabag make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Qarabag have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Qarabag
Kady Borges and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 213% of the Qarabag income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Match3 Oct 2026
Inter made Qarabag work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Looking ahead5 Oct 2026
Top-of-the-table clash for Qarabag
Neftchi next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Qarabag prefer.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match26 Sep 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings28 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.
Market28 Sep 2026
Qarabag may not be able to give Kady Borges what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Kady Borges wants continental football; whether Qarabag can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Qarabag
Kady Borges and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match26 Sep 2026
Still nobody has beaten Qarabag
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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Oleksiy Kashchuk at his very best
Marked 8.28. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Qarabag.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 8.10 — 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 ratings28 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.05 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Market28 Sep 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Qarabag heard it as anything else.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Sep 2026
5‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A brace, and Musa Qurbanlı takes the afternoon — 8.50
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Musa Qurbanlı provided it, and the 8.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match21 Sep 2026
The view from the top for Qarabag
16 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market21 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Kady Borges 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
Musa Qurbanlı among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Musa Qurbanlı on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Qarabag and AZAL.
Match19 Sep 2026
6 unbeaten for Qarabag
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Qarabag did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.13 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Market14 Sep 2026
Pedro Bicalho wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Qarabag hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Match12 Sep 2026
The run is over for Qarabag
4 matches without defeat, and then Zira. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Qarabag
Samuel Lobato and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Nobody on the pitch touched Pedro Bicalho
7.30, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Qarabag had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Half-satisfied: Mahir Sadygov on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout14 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
Qarabag have let the market know Matheus Silva can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Match12 Sep 2026
Point won or two lost for Qarabag?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Zira? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match5 Sep 2026
3‑0, and Kady Borges took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Qarabag tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Match5 Sep 2026
Qarabag make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Qarabag have 4 straight wins of it.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Qarabag close the window on a squad of their own making
15 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The Qarabag board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Qarabag
Pedro Bicalho and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A quiet fortnight at Qarabag
With 7 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Marked 8.21 — 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 ratings7 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.12, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad7 Sep 2026
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad31 Aug 2026
The match ball belongs to Musa Qurbanlı, whose 4 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match29 Aug 2026
6‑0, and Musa Qurbanlı took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Qarabag tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Oleksiy Kashchuk had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.05, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market31 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 Qarabag, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market31 Aug 2026
Qarabag say no — this time
The offer from Gabala for Abbas Hüseynov 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Qarabag make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Qarabag have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Qarabag
Pedro Bicalho and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match29 Aug 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Qarabag and Gabala in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match22 Aug 2026
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. Qarabag found something the first half had given no notice of, and Sumgayit could not hold what they had.
Market24 Aug 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Kady Borges goes up and wins it — 7.69
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 7.69 for the rest of it.
Market24 Aug 2026
Qarabag say no — this time
The offer from Gabala for Bədavi Hüseynov 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Dinamo Tbilisi have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Oleksiy Kashchuk. The answer from Qarabag has not changed — yet.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Kady Borges 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Huracán have kept their man, and Qarabag go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match22 Aug 2026
Three points for Qarabag, 3‑2 the final word against Sumgayit in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mateusz Kochalski, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 7.98 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shakhtar have kept their man, and Qarabag go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Kady Borges in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Qarabag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market17 Aug 2026
Business is business: Jérémie Gnali goes
Inter paid $760.0K and Qarabag took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Match15 Aug 2026
It finished 3‑1, and it was Reda Khadra’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Qarabag.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 8.32 — 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Appearance number 100 for Reda Khadra
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Mahir Sadygov kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout17 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Qarabag
Kady Borges and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Market10 Aug 2026
Gabala pay $400.0K, 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Namig Mammadov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mahir Ozobic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout10 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Qarabag know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
Kady Borges knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kady Borges trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Kady Borges wants to know why he earns less
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Qarabag have no good answer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
326 appearances across 13 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Qarabag know what they have.
Market3 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.
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.” Reda Khadra and Qarabag agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Qarabag
Kady Borges and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Joni Montiel has come up in conversations Qarabag were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
In brief
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Market
Dani Bolt has his eye on Europe
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Squad
9 new faces, and Qarabag are still learning each other
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The dugout
Kady Borges asks for a word with the manager