Kazakhstan's football club Kairat suffered a heavy home defeat to Belgium's Anderlecht in the first leg of the final qualifying round for the UEFA Europa League, reports infohub.kz.
The match, held at the Central Stadium in Almaty, ended 3:0 in favor of the visitors. Already in the second minute, Anderlecht's Finnish midfielder Jaakko Oksanen put the ball into his own net to open the scoring. Before the break, the Belgians extended their lead: Czech midfielder Lukas Ambros scored in the 24th minute, and Ukrainian striker Danylo Sikan added a third in first-half stoppage time (45+1).
Late in the first half, the hosts were reduced to ten men: after a VAR review, Kazakh defender Aleksandr Shirobokov was shown a straight red card in the 38th minute.
The return leg will take place on August 27 in Brussels. The winner over two legs will advance to the Europa League group stage, while the loser will drop into the UEFA Conference League group stage.
Kairat is the only Kazakh club still competing in European competitions. The Almaty side had previously progressed through two Champions League qualifying rounds, defeating Montenegro's Sutjeska and Cyprus's Omonia, before losing to Bulgaria's Levski.