Earthquake appears in Champions League

(Dan Tri) - The "tiny" club Kairat Almaty of Kazakhstan surprisingly defeated the "giant" of Scotland, Celtic, to appear in the Champions League group stage for the first time.

Kairat Almaty is ranked 266th in the UEFA rankings, lower than Hibernians of Gibraltar. However, this small team has created a miracle in the Champions League. They participated in the tournament from the first qualifying round. After that, Kairat Almaty successively overcame Olimpija Ljubljana (Slovenia), KuPS (Finland), Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia) to enter the play-off match against the experienced team Celtic.

Kairat Almaty excellently eliminated Celtic and created an earthquake in the Champions League (Photo: Getty).

In the first leg away, the Kazakh representative excellently held the strongest team in Scotland. In the return leg at home, Kairat Almaty continued to play very bravely against Celtic.

After 120 minutes, Rafael Urazbakhtin's team fought back and kept their net intact against the terrible pressure of Celtic. After that, the two teams were forced to enter a penalty shootout to determine the winner.

21-year-old goalkeeper Temirlan Anarbekov became the hero for Kairat Almaty when he successfully saved three penalties from his opponent. This helped Kairat Almaty win 3-2 in the penalty shootout.

Thus, Kairat Almaty has qualified for the Champions League group stage for the first time. In history, this club has only entered the European Cup group stage once in the 2021/22 season (in the Europa Conference League).

The joy of Kairat Almaty players when participating in the Champions League group stage for the first time (Photo: Getty).

Kairat Almaty is the second Kazakhstan team to reach the Champions League group stage in history. Previously, Astana FC did so in the 2015/16 season. However, Kairat Almaty has become the club with the most geographical distance to the East to participate in the Champions League group stage.

In fact, Kazakhstan is an Asian country but competes under the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The fact that European clubs have to travel about 4,000km to 6,000km to Kairat Almaty to play brings a real big challenge. In fact, many people think that the geographical distance can help Kairat Almaty become a dark horse in the Champions League this season.

Seed groups before the Champions League group stage draw (Photo: UEFA).

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/con-dia-chan-xuat-hien-o-champions-league-20250827122622619.htm