By Nina Subkhanberdina, CNN
(CNN) — Whenever the UEFA Champions League (UCL) anthem plays, millions of people around the world perk up and get excited at the prospect of witnessing some of the best club soccer on the planet.
While the song based on Handel’s “Zadok the Priest” has played through television screens in Kazakhstan for years, it had never echoed around Kairat Almaty’s Central Stadium until this summer.
“For me, it is a childhood dream,” said Kairat midfielder Adilet Sadybekov during a press conference before the team’s Champions League play-off against Scottish club Celtic in August. “Tomorrow, all of Kazakhstan will hear the anthem in Almaty, and for everyone, I think, it is also a small dream come true.”
After 210 minutes without a goal across two legs, Kairat eliminated Celtic on penalties to reach the UCL league phase – the new format introduced in 2024–25 to replace the group stage. At the center of it all was 21-year-old goalkeeper Temirlan Anarbekov, who saved three spot-kicks to propel his club into Europe’s elite field.
For one night, Almaty shared the same heartbeat. Students crowded around dormitory screens, a wedding paused for the final kick, and car horns rang out as flags streamed from open windows.
“The emotions are overflowing,” head coach Rafael Urazbakhtin told Qazsport TV. “The most important thing is to believe.”
The celebrations had barely faded when attention turned to the Champions League draw in late August, when Kairat earned a date with some of Europe’s biggest clubs among their eight opponents, including competition record winner Real Madrid. In Kazakhstan, the young soccer players watched together, gripping their heads in disbelief as their club was matched with arguably the greatest club in world soccer.
When tickets went on sale in Almaty on September 23, strict purchase limits were imposed as organizers braced for unprecedented demand.
Los Blancos traveled 4,000 miles east – more than 1.5 times the distance between New York and Los Angeles – to face Kairat on September 30.
An Asian nation in a European competition
But why did a Spanish club have to travel to Asia to play a European competition?
Roughly a tenth of Kazakhstan’s territory lies west of the Ural River, one of Europe’s natural borders. That geography has long placed the Central Asian nation at a crossroads, straddling both Europe and Asia.
Kazakhstan declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, and just over a decade later, turned decisively westward in soccer. Having been founded in 1954, the club – known as Dynamo Almaty at the time – was already established by then, taking its current name Kairat in 1956.
At European soccer governing body UEFA’s Congress in Stockholm in April 2002, Kazakhstan was admitted as the confederation’s 52nd member after leaving the Asian Football Confederation the previous year. Soon after, a UEFA delegation flew east to inspect stadiums in Almaty, Astana and Atyrau to ensure they met competition standards.
That summer, Kazakhstan’s clubs entered UEFA competitions for the first time, with Zhenis Astana taking part in the Champions League qualifiers and Atyrau and Kairat Almaty in what was then known as the UEFA Cup.
Since then, Kazakh teams have regularly played in UEFA competitions. FC Astana made history in 2015 as the first side from the country to reach the Champions League group stage; Kairat Almaty is now the second.
From the steppe to the stadium
Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city and former capital, rises against the snow-capped Ili Alatau mountains. Its name draws from the Kazakh word for apple, reflecting the wild orchards of the surrounding valleys, which are believed to be the fruit’s birthplace.
On the Kazakh steppe, centuries of nomadic tradition shaped a culture rooted in hospitality and community. Almaty’s streets bear the imprint of its layered history. Soviet-era apartment blocks line leafy boulevards and glass towers cluster in the financial district. From spring to autumn, terraces and cafés spill into the open air, and the pace of life softens as evenings stretch long and warm.
At its heart stands Central Stadium, opened in 1958, the stage set for Kairat’s Champions League debut.
Midfielder Sadybekov said togetherness has been central to Kairat’s run to the biggest competition in club soccer.
“We are one united team,” he told reporters ahead of the team’s UCL matches. “The atmosphere is very good, positive, and I think that’s why we have such good results because we can play calmly at this stage.”
Head coach Urazbakhtin agreed, describing what he called the team’s “microclimate.”
“Recently, we really came together strongly, and that’s already noticeable,” he told reporters at the press conference. “The very status of the match was a little different. There was a different level of responsibility. The players were burning with desire, as were the coaches and our whole club. Maybe that combined energy is what gave us this result.
“After the European matches, the players clearly grow. They improve. We didn’t do anything supernatural. We just tried to work, to give all our strength. That goes for the players, the coaching staff, and all the employees of our club. Everyone simply did their job and tried to do it well.”
Almaty showed up in force with over 100,000 ticket requests for the match against Celtic at home, according to Urazbakhtin.
August’s rush for tickets was only the beginning. When Real Madrid arrived on Tuesday, the demand tested how a city of two million competed for just under 24,000 seats in Central Stadium.
Madrid’s journey east
UEFA clubs have traveled to the edges of the confederation’s geography before. In 2015, Portuguese giant Benfica’s trip to Astana in Kazakhstan previously set the record for the longest journey in European club competition at roughly 3,830 miles.
Real Madrid’s trip to Almaty, though, was even longer than that. The air distance from Spain’s capital to Almaty is roughly 3,989 miles, crossing five time zones and Los Blancos had to travel 13 hours in the air.
“It is another factor to take into account,” Emilio Butragueño, Madrid’s Director of Institutional Relations, said of the mammoth journey on Real Madrid TV. “We’ve never played against them, and they’re very far away. Every game is going to be important, and all our opponents are particularly motivated. We will have to play at a high level and pay attention to the finer points.”
For the famed former Madrid player, the distance magnified the stakes: “All the particularities make this match more difficult than people think.”
Almaty club president Kairat Boranbayev joked to BBC Sport, “We congratulate Europe for expanding its borders to allow Kairat to play in these matches … We believe we will make a bit of noise in Europe.”
Head coach Urazbakhtin called the opportunity to play Madrid in Kazakhstan “the kind of chance that probably comes only once in a lifetime” for his players. Clear-eyed about the steep challenge ahead, he said, “Of course, the competition will be very serious.”
While Madrid had to travel a much further distance than it is accustomed to for a European fixture, Kairat has to travel roughly 15,500 miles – about 62% of the Earth’s circumference – for all of its Champions League matches.
Urazbakhtin told the BBC: “When we got into the Champions League, we understood there would be travel but it is a reward rather than a problem. … This is the toughest exam for our football but also a reward, dream come true and historic moment for Kazakh football.”
What lies ahead
Kairat entered the league phase without star goalkeeper Anarbekov, who suffered a jaw injury in a domestic match and is recovering, according to the club.
In his place, 18-year-old Sherkhan Kalmurza made his Champions League debut in Lisbon – a trip that set the record for distance traveled by a team in competition history at roughly 4,300 miles – against Sporting CP on Matchday 1. Joining the ranks of the youngest goalkeepers in the history of the UEFA Champions League, he saved a first-half penalty but conceded four times as Sporting switched gears after the break.
However, Brazilian forward Edmilson de Paula Santos Filho did provide some joy for the much-traveled visitors, volleying home Kairat’s first Champions League goal in the 86th minute.
There was then another historic night for the club on Tuesday when it played 15-time Champions League winner Real Madrid.
Los Blancos, with all their superstars in tow, predictably won handily, 5-0, with Kylian Mbappé scoring a hat-trick.
Eduardo Camavinga and Brahim Díaz also got on the scoresheet but, despite the heavy defeat, the night will be long remembered in Kairat’s lore.