Almaty's Kairat secured a 2-0 away victory over Yelimay in the final match of the 24th round of the Kazakhstan Premier League. The reigning champion decided the game with two goals in the middle of the first half, reports infohub.kz.
Spanish forward Marc Gual opened the scoring in the 32nd minute. Just three minutes later, Portuguese defender Luis Mata doubled the visitors' lead. Yelimay failed to mount a comeback, and the match ended 0-2.
The win brought Kairat to 51 points, cutting the gap to leaders Ordabasy to four points. Kairat have played 22 matches, while Shymkent side have 23. Yelimay remained in sixth place with 32 points.
This was Kairat's first game after their European qualification campaign ended. On August 27, they lost 0-3 to Anderlecht in the second leg of the Europa League playoff and were eliminated. Now, Rafael Urazbakhtin's side will compete in the Conference League group stage.