Almaty's Kairat U19 opened their UEFA Youth League campaign with a resounding 5-0 away win over Montenegrin club Mladost Donja Gorica. The first-round Champions Path match was played on 15 September, according to infohub.kz.
Zhorа Arutyunyan's side gave the hosts no chance of a favorable outcome. Even before the break, the Almaty team beat Mladost goalkeeper Damjan Janković three times: from the 35th to the 43rd minute, Roman Chernomorets, Akezhan Kalikulov and Yermukhammad Kerimkhan scored.
In the second half, Abylai Zhilkaydar and Sanat Nurbolat made it a rout, turning the return leg in Almaty into a formality. The final score was 0-5 (0-3) in favor of the Kazakh team.
Last season, Kairat's youth team played in the league phase of the Youth League against the same opponents as the club's senior teams in the Champions League. This time, the Almaty youngsters are following the so-called Champions Path: to reach the play-offs, they must overcome three qualifying rounds.
After Mladost, Kairat's youth team will face Hungarian side MTK on 28 October and 4 November. If they win, the Almaty team will play either Maltese club Valletta, Albanian side Partizani or Czech club Hradec Králové on 25 November and 9 December. The return leg against Mladost is scheduled for 14 October.
The round of 32 draw will take place on 11 December in Nyon.
The format of the UEFA Youth League is as follows. In the first stage, 86 teams are divided into two large groups. The 36 youth teams from clubs in the league phase of the senior Champions League follow the Champions League Path, while the other 50 follow the Domestic Champions Path. From the round of 32 onwards, the paths merge.
The top 22 clubs from the 36 in the Champions League Path advance to the round of 32. At this stage, teams ranked 1st to 6th will face opponents ranked 17th to 22nd. Clubs ranked 7th to 16th will play the eight best teams from the Champions Path.