UEFA Conference League: FC Kairat fall to Panathinaikos at home

The Almaty Central Stadium was far from full, likely because of cool weather. According to the stadium announcement, attendance for the Conference League fixture was recorded at just over 9,000.

The match proved dramatic for the host side.

Rafael Urazbakhtin’s side got off to a slow start. Hesitant choices and static positional play from the Almaty team allowed the visitors to take complete control early on.

Vicente Taborda opened the scoring in the sixth minute, and Cyriel Dessers doubled the Greek side’s lead in the 24th minute by calmly converting a penalty kick. The teams went into halftime with the score at 2-0.

The second half began similarly. Just a minute after the restart, Dessers completed his brace. In the 57th minute, Greek substitute Kings Kangwa extended the lead to four.

A critical lack of pace forced Kairat’s coaching staff to take radical action in the 64th minute.

Fresh legs entered the pitch at the same time: Lev Kurgin, Ismail Bekbolat, and Damir Kasabulat replaced Luís Mata, Marc Gual, and Jaakko Oksanen.

After the triple substitution, the Almaty club tried to step up the tempo and push play away from their goal. Nevertheless, the Greek giant expertly neutralized the game by retaining possession. Moreover, Elmin Rastoder capped off the scoring for Panathinaikos in the 75th minute, 5-0.

In the 79th minute, Kairat managed a consolation goal, with youth prospect Ismail Bekbolat outmaneuvering the Greek club’s defense and goalkeeper to score.

The match ended in a 5-1 defeat for FC Kairat.

In the Conference League phase, Kairat has one point after two matchdays, earned during an away draw against Latvia's Riga FC.

As reported in August this year, the Kazakh club suffered a 3-0 away defeat to Belgian side Anderlecht in the second leg of the UEFA Europa League qualifying playoffs.