Karagandy's Shakhter has secured an early promotion to the Premier League, clinching their 13th consecutive victory in the First League of the Kazakhstan Championship. The decisive match took place in Semey, where the miners thrashed Elimay-M 3:0. This success marks a milestone: the team, which for the first time in its history was relegated to the First League, returns to the KPL after a year, stronger and with prospects, reports infohub.kz.
The win in Semey was powered by goals from Ulshin (37th minute), Kagazbayev (45th), and Litosh (70th). Symbolically, the league's top scorer Artem Litosh found the net: starting the match on the bench, the 21-year-old forward came on as a substitute in the second half and scored his 19th goal in 19 matches just five minutes later. Andrei Finonchenko's side has achieved their main objective, but will undoubtedly strive to clinch the small gold medals.
In other Round 20 matches, Aktobe-M defeated Zhaik 1:0, Taraz proved stronger than Tobol-M (3:1), Khan-Tengri thrashed Astana-M 3:0, Kairat-Zhastar edged past Arys 1:0, Turan won away at Batyr 4:2, and Akademia Ontustik beat Kaspiy-M 2:1.
The Brussels experiments with the main Kairat's coaching staff forced Kairat-Zhastar to resort to significant rotation. In the home match against Arys, Zhora Arutyunyan's team managed only one goal, and that from a penalty converted by Karim Makhametzhan.
Turan, also aiming for the KPL, secured an important victory. Batyr in Ekibastuz twice equalized, but in the end the Turkestan side was unstoppable. Yedige Oralbay scored a brace.
The brace was not the only one in the round. The "academics" from Shymkent won away at Kaspiy 2:1 thanks to two goals from Bakir Dzhamalov. The second goal of the 20-year-old forward was particularly spectacular, scored with a curling shot directly from a corner.
Darkhan Medelkhan of Khan-Tengri twice found the net against the capital's youth team, and the Almaty side won 3:0.
The 21st round of the First League will take place on September 3 and 4.