Overview
Kairat Almaty made his first appearance in the Champions League after overcoming a series of tough qualifiers.
The Kazakhstan team defeated Olimpija Ljubljana, KuPS and Slovan Bratislava in turn, before eliminating champion Scotland Celtic on penalties in the final qualifying round.
However, a harsh reality quickly came in the opening match, when they lost 1-4 to Sporting Lisbon, the honorary goal belonged to Edmilson.
After that defeat, Rafael Urazbakhtin and his team regained their spirit with a 3-1 victory over Zhenis. They have not played since then and have had an ideal break before the challenging trip to Real Madrid.
Notably, this match is only the second time in the history of the Champions League that a Kazakhstan representative has faced a Spanish team, after the confrontation between Astana and Atletico Madrid in the group stage of the 2015-16 season.
Kairat hopes to recreate the resilience that helped them keep a clean sheet in all 4 home matches in the qualifiers, when facing the giants Real Madrid.
Xabi Alonso started his first season in charge of Real Madrid with great excitement, seeing his team win all 7 official matches. Including a 2-1 victory over Marseille in the opening match of the Champions League group stage.
Los Blancos continued to maintain their excitement with a 2-0 victory over Espanyol and a 4-1 crushing Levante, creating an ideal start to the Madrid derby.
However, after only 90 minutes at Metropolitano, Real suddenly collapsed. Despite taking a 2-1 lead thanks to goals from Kylian Mbappe and Arda Guler, they still let Atletico come back to win 5-2, and were pushed 1 point behind Barcelona. Blaugrana took advantage of the opportunity with a narrow victory over Real Sociedad.
Alonso and his students will now find a way to turn their derby defeat into motivation when they head into the match against Kairat. History is in Real's favor, with 24 wins in the last 30 matches in the Champions League/European Cup C1 (3 draws, 3 losses).
However, one problem Real need to improve is their away form in the continental arena. They have won 3 and lost 4 of their 7 trips in the 2024-2025 season.
Personnel situation
Kairat suffered a big blow when the striker duo Elder Santana and Joao Paulo were not on the list due to ligament injuries. Goalkeeper Temirlan Anarbekov and midfielder Giorgi Zaria are also absent, while Alexandr Zarutskiy's ability to play is still uncertain.
If Zarutskiy does not recover in time, 18-year-old goalkeeper Serkhan Kalmurza will continue to start. Up front, young talent Dastan Satpaev is likely to carry the attack after scoring in 2/3 of the most recent matches.
On Real Madrid's side, Dani Carvajal and Eder Militao both left the field due to injuries in the Madrid derby and are definitely absent from the Champions League.
In addition, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Antonio Rudiger and Ferland Mendy have not been able to return, forcing Alonso to keep the same defense that started in the 4-1 victory over Levante.
Up front, Franco Mastantuono is competing for a starting position, which could force Jude Bellingham to give up after just returning from the FIFA Club World Cup 2025.
Expected lineup:
Kaorat: Kalmurza, Tapalov, Martynovich, Sorokin, Mata, Kassabulat, Arad, Mrynskiy, Jorginho, Gromyko, Satpaev.
Real Madrid: Courtois, Asencio, Huijsen, Carreras, Garcia, Valverde, Tchouameni, Mastantuono, Guler, Vinicius, Mbappe.
The match between Kairat and Real Madrid takes place at 23:45 on September 29 (Vietnam time).
