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| ReutersYonhap News |
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| APYonhap News |
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| ReutersYonhap News |
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Among the 36 clubs participating in the European Champions League (UCL) league phase in the 2025-2026 season, the most eye-catching is Kazakh club Khairat Almaty.
Khairat finished the 120th minute, including extra time, 0-0 in the second playoff game against Celtic at Central Stadium in Almaty, Kazakhstan on the 27th (Korea time). Khairat, who returned from a 0-0 away draw in the first leg, took a penalty shootout of 0-0 in the first and second legs, and with goalkeeper Temiran Anarbekov's brilliant defense, he made it to the top stage of the European club competition for the first time in the club's history with a 3-2 victory in the penalty shootout score. Celtic striker Yang Hyun-joon lowered his head to the elimination of the 'Champs'.
Khairat is 311th in the UEFA Club Counting Rankings. It is 255 places lower than Celtic in 56th place. The total market value of Khairat's squad is 12.8 million euros (about 20.6 billion won) and Celtic is 130.4 million euros (about 210 billion won). Japanese striker Daizen Maeda, who missed the game as Celtic's fifth kicker, is worth 15 million euros (about 24.2 billion won).
That's why it's an anomaly. After the game, the Kairat players were in the locker room, saying, `We've made a mess of (Celtic)", `We made the whole country happy,' he roared.
There was a festival in downtown Almaty. Almaty Street was crowded with citizens to celebrate the history of the local team. It is said that the automatic horn sounded until dawn. The Kazakh media 'Tengri Life' reported "This seems like a normal event, but our team has advanced to the Champions League tournament for the first time in history. Just like you don't complain about the noise on New Year's Eve, please congratulate our team for at least one day. This is something to be really proud of,' he said, according to a response from a Khairat fan.
Fans familiar with 'European football' began to look for where the Khairat team was located. After Khairat advanced to the UCL finals, it is easy to find images of the distance between Almaty and major European cities on social media. Kazakhstan, a Eurasian country close to Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, participates in the Asian Games, but the Football Association is a member of the UEFA. The national team will compete in the European Championship, and the club will compete in the European Champions League and the European Europa League.
For example, Almaty is 5,500km away from Paris, home to Lee Kang-in's team Paris Saint-Germain. It takes about 7-9 hours to fly to Almaty. It's not like it's the same Europe. It is similar to how the K-League club heads to Qatar to play the `Asia' Champions League.
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| '같은 유럽?' Paris to Almaty. |
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The UEFA will hold a draw ceremony for the UCL League phase in the 2025-2026 season in Monaco at 1 a.m. on the 29th in Korean time. PSG and Kim Min-jae's teams Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Chelsea, Barcelona, and Dortmund were in one port. The kyrate is four ports. Thirty-six teams will play a league phase with a total of eight teams, two teams from each port, and the top eight teams will go straight to the round of 16, and the ninth to 24th teams will advance to the knockout phase playoffs.
European big clubs in Port 1 and Port 2 may want to avoid away trips to Khairat. Due to the power difference, it can be considered as a 'score vending machine', but if it is far away, it will be difficult to digest the schedule. The UCL League phase takes place during the week between weekend league games.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
