Kairat advances to second qualifying round of Champions League

Tengrinews.kz — On the night of July 15 to 16, Almaty’s Kairat defeated Montenegro’s Sutjeska in the second leg of the first qualifying round of the 2026/27 Champions League season.
As a reminder, the first match took place on July 8 in Almaty at the Central Stadium. Kairat won that game 2-1, with defender Lucas Africo and forward Marc Gual scoring the goals.
To advance to the second round, the Almaty side needed to avoid defeat in the return match, which was held in the Montenegrin city of Niksic.
Kairat’s lineup for the match against Sutjeska:
Temirlan Anarbekov (GK), Aleksandr Mrynskiy, Aleksandr Shirobokov, Lucas Africo, Luis Mata, Adilet Sadybekov, Jaakko Oksanen, Oiva Jukkola, Ismail Bekbolat, Jorginho, Marc Gual.












View this post on Instagram

A post from FC Kairat Almaty (@f.c.kairat)


Match progress
In the 68th minute, winger Ismail Bekbolat opened the scoring after taking advantage of a mistake by Sutjeska’s Montenegrin goalkeeper.
In the 80th minute, Kairat were awarded a penalty, which forward Jorginho successfully converted.












View this post on Instagram

A post from FC Kairat Almaty (@f.c.kairat)


The final score was 2-0 in favor of Kairat, or 3-1 on aggregate.
Thus, Almaty’s Kairat advanced to the second qualifying round of the Champions League, where they will face Cyprus’ Omonia.