The leaders of the Kazakhstan championship, Ordabasy and Kairat, secured victories with the same score of 3:1 in the 22nd round of the Kazakhstan Premier League. The Almaty side proved stronger than Ulytau, while the Shymkent team defeated Altai... reports the website infohub.kz.
Before the match against Ordabasy, the Ust-Kamenogorsk side unexpectedly added to their points tally. The KFF awarded Altai a 3:0 win over Kyzylzhar. The 21st-round game, played on August 8, had ended in a 2:2 draw. However, it later emerged that Ukrainian midfielder Oleksandr Noyok of the Petropavlovsk team was not eligible to play. Why this was discovered after the match rather than before is an interesting question. But in any case, Kyzylzhar were handed a technical defeat.
Having received a boost in their fight for survival, Altai nevertheless found no strong arguments against the leader. Already on the 4th minute, Shymkent's Sergei Malyi scored his trademark header. And on the 38th minute, Norwegian Bjorn Johnsen ended a two-match goal drought. He also converted a penalty in the closing stages. In between the Scandinavian's goals, Altai's Ibragim Dadaev found the net.
Kairat's press service took a humorous approach to the relocation of the match against Ulytau from the Central Stadium in Almaty to the club's academy field. The poster prepared for the game clearly hinted that on August 15 there would be something to watch besides the postponed rap star's concert.
The players did not disappoint. Brazilian Edmilson, Finnish Oivo Jukkonen, and homegrown Azamat Tuyakbaev each scored against Dmitry Nepogodov. A consolation goal in stoppage time came from Belarusian Ilya Chernyak, who plays for Zhezkazgan – 3:1.
In parallel matches of the round, Zhenis from Astana thrashed Zhetysu 4:1. The debut of Bosnian coach Vladimir Sliskovic, who replaced Ali Aliyev at the helm of Zhenis, was successful. The foreign legion of the Astana side welcomed the arrival of the foreign coach with four goals against Zhetysu. A brace from penalties by Croatian Andrija Filipovic was supplemented by Brazilian Adilio dos Santos and Ukrainian Vladyslav Naumets. For the Taldykorgan side, Serbian Marko Zivanovic scored. In short, the legionnaires had a field day.
As did in the game Kaisar – Aktobe. Kyzylorda's Nigerian forward Victor Moses opened the scoring in the 11th minute. At the end of the match, Aktobe's Nigerien forward Daniel Sousa turned the game around, scoring a winning brace. Igor Cherevchenko's charges, it seems, have joined the race for bronze medals and a spot in European competitions.
The 22nd round of KPL-2026 will conclude on August 16 with matches: Kyzylzhar – Astana, Atyrau – Okzhetpes, Irtysh – Tobol, and Kaspii – Elimai.