Neftchi and Pakhtakor entered the round level on 52 points, and their two away games were the fixtures we highlighted as the biggest tests. By the end of the weekend, that tie was gone: Neftchi won the derby in Kokand, while Pakhtakor failed to protect a lead against Navbahor and now trail by two points.
The 888STARZ line saved in our Friday preview captured the difference between those games well. Neftchi’s win was the expected outcome, while the draw in Namangan and Bukhara’s victory offered much more value once compared with how the teams were priced before kick-off.
Kokand-1912 vs Neftchi — 2–4
The derby was tougher than the final 2–4 score suggests. Kokand scored first, Neftchi responded quickly, and after the break the teams traded goals again before the leaders finally took control despite finishing the game with 10 men.
888STARZ: 6.55 / 4.40 / 1.45 — the 1.45 away win landed. The market read the difference in quality correctly, but the more useful takeaway is how Neftchi dealt with adversity: they recovered from an early setback, reacted immediately after conceding again and still closed the game out after the red card.
After 24 rounds, Neftchi have 55 points and 56 goals, the best attacking record in the league. Pakhtakor have scored 43, so the current advantage is not only the two-point gap but also a significantly higher level of attacking production.
Navbahor vs Pakhtakor — 1–1
The line here was much tighter than the league positions might have suggested. 888STARZ priced it at 2.13 / 3.40 / 3.28, making Navbahor the slight favourite rather than the league leaders.
Pakhtakor went ahead before half-time and later had a chance to put the game away from the penalty spot, but failed to convert. Navbahor kept pushing and equalised in the 84th minute.
The draw at 3.40 landed. In this case, the pre-match market read the matchup rather well: this was never priced like a routine away win for Pakhtakor.
The late equaliser changed the title picture significantly. Instead of staying level with Neftchi on 55 points, Pakhtakor remain on 53, while Navbahor strengthened third place on 46.
Lokomotiv vs Nasaf — 0–0
The pre-match line gave Nasaf a slight edge:
2.90 / 3.31 / 2.37 — the draw at 3.31 landed.
That away price made sense given Nasaf’s form. They had won four league games in a row and scored 15 goals across that run, but Lokomotiv became the first side in five rounds to shut them out completely.
That makes this 0–0 more valuable than a routine goalless draw. Lokomotiv not only stopped one of the league’s hottest attacks, but also preserved their position above Nasaf — 39 points to 38.
Dinamo vs Bukhara — 1–2
The biggest betting upset among our four selected matches came in Samarkand.
888STARZ: 1.74 / 3.67 / 4.51 — the 4.51 away win landed. Dinamo were clear favourites, yet Bukhara recovered from conceding early, equalised after the break and won it in the 90th minute.
This is where the final result genuinely broke the pre-match expectation. Unlike cases where a favourite loses despite dominating the game, Bukhara at 4.51 managed the difficult start and still found a way to take all three points.
The win moved Bukhara up to fourth place on 40 points. AGMK and Lokomotiv are directly behind on 39, with Nasaf on 38, so the late winner changed the entire picture immediately below the top three.
The Rest of Matchday 24
AGMK beat Mash’al 1–0, while Qizilqum defeated Andijan by the same score. Bunyodkor drew 1–1 with Sogdiana, and Surkhon and Khorezm finished 0–0.
The bottom of the table is now especially tight. Kokand-1912, Bunyodkor and Khorezm all have 23 points, meaning one good or bad round can still move a team several places at once.
What the 888STARZ Line Actually Told Us
Of the four matches we highlighted on Friday, only one pre-match favourite won — Neftchi at 1.45. But the raw “one out of four” number does not tell the full story.
In Namangan, Pakhtakor were not favourites in the first place, and the draw at 3.40 matched the balance of the fixture well. In Tashkent, Nasaf had only a slight edge and were held to a 3.31 draw by a Lokomotiv side that stopped their best attacking run of the season. The true market upset came in Samarkand, where Bukhara won at 4.51 despite going into the game as clear underdogs.
That is why the saved line matters. It separates a genuinely surprising result from a game that only looks surprising if you judge it from the table alone.
What We Take From Matchday 24
The biggest signal is not simply that Neftchi are now first. They enter the decisive stretch as the league’s highest-scoring side, have just won an emotionally difficult derby, and hold a two-point advantage over Pakhtakor.
The picture below them has changed too. Bukhara are now fourth and are beginning to look less like a comfortable mid-table side and more like a genuine threat to the teams just behind the podium, while Lokomotiv showed they can shut down even the league’s hottest attack.
Those are the trends worth carrying into Matchday 25.
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