Kairat, Real Madrid set for Champions League clash in Almaty

The main event of the Kazakh football season will take place tomorrow. On Sept. 30, Kairat will play its first-ever home match in the Champions League main tournament against Real Madrid.

Champions League 2025-26. Round 2

Kairat (Almaty, Kazakhstan) vs. Real (Madrid, Spain)

(Sept. 30, Almaty, Ortalyk Stadium, 9:45 p.m.)

The opponents’ weight classes are, of course, incomparable. The 36-time Spanish champion team against the four-time Kazakh champion team. A 20-time Spanish Cup winner versus a 10-time Kazakhstan Cup winner. A 15-time European and five-time world champion versus a Champions League debutant. Real Madrid was founded 52 years before Kairat, in 1902, and its star players are worth a combined €1.397 billion, compared with €13.025 million for the Almaty team.

In the off-season, Xabi Alonso, a well-known Spanish football manager brought in from Bayer, took over the team. Under his supervision, the club acquired central defender Dean Huijsen, fullbacks Trent Alexander-Arnold and Álvaro Carreras and young winger Franco Mastantuono. The club also decided not to extend the contracts of Luka Modrić and Lucas Vázquez.

Seven wins in seven matches, including a Champions League victory over Olympique de Marseille, signaled the success of Alonso’s restructuring, although a major fiasco in the Madrid derby was a real slap in the face for the prominent club. In Almaty, however, Real Madrid arrived determined to win.

Kairat, like Real Madrid, is second in the national championship heading into this head-to-head match. The day before, Astana overtook the Almaty team in the gold medal race.

By advancing to the Champions League main tournament for the first time in its history, Kairat, frankly, may have bitten off more than it can chew. Therefore, football experts aren’t expecting any great achievements from the Almaty club in Europe’s premier competition. The fiasco in Lisbon, when Kairat lost to Sporting CP, confirmed that the Kazakh football players still have a lot to learn in the league.

The Kazakhs have no win history in European matches against Spanish clubs. FC Astana managed only one draw in six matches against La Liga clubs. Kairat, on the other hand, will face a Spanish club for the first time, just as Real Madrid will also face a Kazakh club for the first time.

The Madrid team has already arrived in Almaty, leaving Alexander-Arnold, Militão, Rüdiger, Mendy and Carvajal at home. The Kairat-Real Madrid match is just hours away. Even though Real Madrid’s superiority is quite obvious, football is a game, and titles, money or statistics do not guarantee a win. Kairat has an excellent chance to prove it.