Finnish forward Oiva Jukkola of Almaty's Kairat compared the level of the Kazakhstan Premier League with that of European competitions at a press conference, reports infohub.kz.
The 24-year-old winger is in his first season with the "yellow-blacks." He was asked why his statistics in the Kazakhstan Premier League are much better than in European competitions. According to Jukkola, several factors come into play, from a higher level of opposition to bad luck.
"Of course, the level in the Champions League is very high. And now even in the Europa League, our opponent (Belgium's Anderlecht — ed.) matches that level. At this level, creating chances is harder. But we saw in the second leg against Levski that I had chances. I could have scored one or even two goals, but it wasn't my day. Of course, such matches are more demanding on players. You have to give more effort to defending. Also, opponents are stronger in one-on-one situations. The matches are tougher, but sometimes you just don't get the luck," Jukkala said.
Kairat reached the third qualifying round of the Champions League but were eliminated by Bulgaria's Levski. In the Europa League playoff round, the Almaty side will face Belgium's Anderlecht. The winner of this tie will advance to the group stage. The loser will compete in the Conference League group stage.