Kairat Almaty’s belief that they can upset Celtic in Champions League Playoff

Kairat aiming to make history 

Celtic welcome Kairat tomorrow night, with the visitors aiming to make history as the first Kazakh side to reach the Champions League group stage. However, their preparations took a major setback at the weekend as they squandered a two-goal lead at home to Yelimay Semey, eventually losing 3-2 in a rare league defeat.

But Belarus international Gromyko reckons the defeat will not hinder Kairat’s mindset going into the two-legged encounter with the Scottish champions.

“We approach every game with the same attitude”

Speaking via The Herald, he said: “I have no concerns that the defeat will impact our mood for playing against Celtic. We approach every game with the same attitude.”

“Although the Celtic game is very important, we also want to become champions of Kazakhstan, so it wasn’t as if we lost focus or anything. We made defensive mistakes, which cost us goals. We were poor in our concentration levels on the pitch and need to improve on that.

“We have a tough schedule with two games a week and long journeys”

“We have a tough schedule with two games a week and long journeys, but I don’t believe that had anything to do with the defeat. The football gods see everything and punished us.”

Kairat will actually have to cope without their influential midfielder Gromyko tomorrow night as he is unavailable through suspension.

However, Russian defender Yegor Sorokin and Belarusian international Alyaksandr Martynovich have been cleared to travel after receiving UK visas, easing earlier concerns that bureaucratic issues might prevent their involvement.

Kairat’s Sporting Director Askar Yesimov outlined: “All of our players have now received visas. We started working on this issue even before the return match with Slovan Bratislava because we believed that we would advance further.”

“Valery Gromyko cannot play in the first leg due to an accumulation of yellow cards”

“Our Football Association and the Kazakhstan Ministry of Tourism and Sports have done a great job. UEFA also took control of the situation, so there were no problems. However, we have been informed by UEFA that Valery Gromyko cannot play in the first leg due to an accumulation of yellow cards.”

Conor Spence