Nasaf beat Bunyodkor 3-0 in the Superliga regular season on Tuesday, a result that leaves the hosts seven points clear of their visitors in the table. The match finished at the Nasaf stadium with the home side taking all three points without a moment of drama beyond the scoreline itself. By then, the visitors had already looked tired, though nobody could have predicted it before kickoff.
And here's the thing about the opening exchange: Gulomov gave them the lead in the fourteenth minute, then picked up a yellow card for the same player twenty minutes later. It was a yellow for a challenge that caught the eye, nothing more. Rahmatov doubled the advantage before the break in the thirty-eighth minute, a goal that came from work at the near post rather than any flash of individual brilliance. The hosts kept it simple.
Substitutions started coming in the second half, as they often do when a result is no longer in doubt. Sulaymonov and Tursunmahammadov came on together in the fifty-sixth minute, while Annamatov received a booking shortly after. The visitors made changes too—Ghudushauri and Abdikholikov replaced each other in the sixty-sixth minute, then Abdunabiev and Nematjonov followed in the seventy-ninth. Mukhitdinov added the third goal in the eighty-seventh minute, then came off for Davronov in the eighty-ninth as the game wound down.
The statistics tell a story that doesn't quite match the scoreline. Bunyodkor had 55 per cent possession and 79 attacks to Nasaf's 68, but only three shots on target compared to thirteen for the hosts. Five shots went off target for Nasaf, two for the visitors. The difference was in the finishing, or rather in the lack of it for the away side. To be fair, possession figures can be misleading when one side is content to sit back and wait.
Nasaf now sit seventh with 28 points from 20 games, their record reading seven wins, seven draws and six defeats. Bunyodkor remain fifteenth with 19 points, six victories, one draw and thirteen losses. The gap between them has widened, and neither side is heading for the top four. By then, the season was already slipping away from the visitors, who had lost five of their last six matches across all competitions.
