Olmaliq saw off Khorezm 1-0 in the Superliga's regular season round 20 on September 3rd. It was a result that kept the hosts in sixth place while leaving their visitors rooted to twelfth. By then, both sides carried the weight of recent results, Olmaliq having failed to win in three league outings.
The decisive moment arrived quickly. S. Haghnazari found the net in the fifteenth minute, and that proved sufficient for the ninety. To be fair, neither side created much afterwards, and the match settled into a cautious rhythm after the opener.
Discipline held up for the most part, though Rafael Sabino picked up a yellow card in the thirty-ninth minute. D. Ortiqboyev would follow suit later, booked in the eighty-second, by which point the game had lost any remaining urgency.
Substitutions came thick and fast after the break. Olmaliq brought on S. Khamidzhonov and Lohan at the interval, then S. Azimov and Rafael Sabino in the sixty-first. The hosts made two more changes in the seventy-fourth and seventy-ninth, while Khorezm added M. Kosimov in the eighty-fourth.
And here's the thing — Olmaliq's form has been uneven of late. They drew 0-0 at Surkhon on August 25th, lost 0-1 to Dinamo Samarqand and 0-2 to Bukhoro, before beating Bunyodkor 3-2 and falling to Nasaf 1-2. Khorezm's run was no steadier: they lost 0-1 to Andijan, 1-3 to Lokomotiv, drew 2-2 with Dinamo Samarqand, beat Mash'al 2-0, then went down 1-5 to Navbahor.
The gap between them remains nine points in the table. Olmaliq sit on 29 from 19 games while Khorezm have managed 20 from the same number of fixtures. Neither side is in danger, but neither looks likely to climb much further either.
