🇰🇿 Thousands of miles to the east, Kairat Almaty are a Champions League oddity

The Kazakhstani champions will face the European elite!

When Kairat Almaty travel to Lisbon to face Sporting CP on Thursday, they’ll embark on the longest trip ever taken by an away team in the Champions League.

There’s 4,200 miles between the Portuguese capital and the home of the Kazakhstani champions who have qualified for Europe’s most prestigious club competition for the first time in their history this season.

That history isn’t just the history of a football club, but that of a nation as well. Kairat were known as The Nation’s Team during Kazakhstan’s Soviet era. They remain a distillation of local pride to this day.

Kairat Almaty’s story is fascinating and the fact they are the easternmost club ever to play in the Champions League is only part of what makes them so interesting.