Almaty, 22 October. Almaty's Kairat lost 1-5 to Greece's Panathinaikos in the second round of the UEFA Conference League league phase at Almaty's Central Stadium; it is the Almaty side's first defeat in the tournament, and their next match is against Italy's Atalanta on 5 November.
The visitors opened the scoring in the sixth minute: Giorgos Kyriakopoulos crossed from the left and Vicente Taborda finished first time. In the 24th minute Cyriel Dessers won a penalty and converted it himself. Another Greek goal was ruled out for offside after a VAR check, and the teams went in at half-time at 0-2.
Straight after the break, in the 47th minute, Dessers scored his second, going one on one with the goalkeeper after a pass from Andreas Tetteh. In the 57th minute Kings Kangwa scored from a free kick into the top corner, and in the 75th Elmin Rastoder made it 0-5. The hosts' only goal came in the 79th minute from forward Ismail Bekbolat after a pass from national team defender Alexander Shirobokov.
What it means: Kairat conceded five at home to the group leaders and after two rounds have one point, in the lower part of the overall table; Panathinaikos lead it with six.
Who benefits: Panathinaikos, who have taken maximum points. For Kairat the defeat makes reaching the next stage harder; they need points in the remaining rounds, starting with Atalanta.
Background: In the first round Kairat drew 1-1 away to Latvia's Riga, while Panathinaikos beat Bosnia's Borac 2-1 at home.
List of sources used: BES.media, NUR.KZ, Zakon.kz
Artificial intelligence was used in preparing this material.
