Last year’s Kazakhstani footballing heroes, Kairat Almaty, kept the dream alive for a while longer as they scraped through a tough tie against the Cypriot team, Omonia.
The team managed by Rafael Urazbakhtin won respect and admiration across Europe for their Champions League campaign in 2025/2026 after beating a below-par Celtic to make the final stages for the first time.
It was the so-called lottery of a penalty shoot-out on 26 August 2025 which took the Kazakh champions through against their Scottish counterparts, the latter club’s manager left to rue missed opportunities in both matches as his team ended up on the wrong end of the shock result.
Last night, trailing 0-1 from the first leg, Kairat Almaty took a first-half lead from an Edmilson goal, but despite the Brazilian player’s class, couldn’t convert home-field advantage into a win in open play, even after two of their opponents were sent for an early shower.
The final tally after the Cypriots’ critical sudden-death penalty was saved by the keeper, Termirlan Anarbekov, was 6-5 to the southern Kazakh team.
Manager Rafael Urazbakhtin backed up his words after the first leg, when he said that there was lots more football left to play in this tie, and that Kairat were still in with a good chance of progressing.
They will line up next against an opponent likely to prove far tougher, Levski Sofia, with the opening match in Bulgaria on 4 August.
In fairness to the current league leaders, they are not widely tipped to make the Champions League again this year, but will battle to repeat the adventure until the last ball is kicked.
Or, more likely with Anarbekov between the sticks, until the last penalty is saved.
