Kairat’s Champions League match ends in narrow defeat

Earlier, in the first round, the Almaty club advanced past Montenegro’s Sutjeska with an aggregate score of 4:1.

In the second round, Kairat faced Omonia, with the first match taking place in Cyprus.

Kairat’s lineup for the match against Omonia:

Temirlan Anarbekov (GK), Yerkin Tapalov, Aleksandr Martynovich, Lucas Africo, Luis Mata, Adilet Sadybekov, Jaakko Oksanen, Aleksandr Mrynskiy, Oiva Jukkola, Jorginho, Marc Gual.

Match progress

The Cypriot side opened the scoring in the 13th minute, when midfielder Panayiotis Andreou sent the ball into the bottom corner from inside the penalty area after a rebound.

In the 34th minute, Omonia were reduced to ten men because of rough play by defender Loïc Nego. The referee initially showed the Hungarian player a yellow card, but after reviewing the replay, sent him off.

After the break, Kairat brought on an additional forward, Edmilson, who replaced Adilet Sadybekov.

In the 58th minute, winger Ismail Bekbolat replaced defender Yerkin Tapalov, and 10 minutes later defender Lev Kurgin came on for winger Oiva Jukkola.

Late in the second half, Rafael Urazbakhtin brought on midfielders Azamat Tuyakbayev and newcomer Gustavo Mendoza in place of Luis Mata and Marc Gual.

Throughout the entire second half, which the Almaty side played with a numerical advantage, they had 69 percent possession and registered two shots on target, but were unable to equalize.

The final score was 1:0 in favor of Omonia.

The return leg will take place in Almaty at Central Stadium on July 29 at 8:00 p.m. Kazakhstan time.