Rafael Urazbakhtin, the head coach of Kazakhstan's Kairat, summed up the Europa League match against Belgium's Anderlecht at a press conference, reports infohub.kz.
The first leg of the Europa League playoff round took place at the Central Stadium in Almaty and ended 3-0 in favor of the visitors. All goals were scored before halftime.
"Unfortunately, it's a completely different level. If you make such gross and stupid mistakes, you get punished. In the Kazakhstan championship, they might punish you every other time, but here - immediately. We gifted them the goals. And the unnecessary red card - I didn't see the point of jumping like that in the middle of the field. At halftime, I told the guys that the main thing was not to fall apart and not to concede a bagful in the second half. We got across that it's important to play compactly and organized. That's what they showed. They played in the second half the way we should have played in the first. I think the match was over for us when we conceded the third goal," said Urazbakhtin.
The Kazakh specialist also addressed a question about the condition of the pitch. The turf at the Central Stadium in Almaty had noticeably suffered after a Kanye West concert on August 14.
"Why lie - the pitch is not of the best quality. But I won't say we lost because of it. After seven days of high temperatures, it had changed. But it's not about the pitch, it's about the head. We focused on lateral passes, but it was exactly such a pass that led to an interception and a goal," concluded Urazbakhtin.
The return match between Kairat and Anderlecht will take place on August 27 in Brussels. The winner on aggregate will advance to the Europa League group stage. The loser will compete in the Conference League group stage.