In a first of an all-important final double bill in the UCL, Club makes its way to Kairat Almaty. Find out what you need to know here!
The Fixture
In their first European encounter of 2026, Club will be facing FC Kairat Almaty at 16h30 (20h30 local time). For Club Brugge KV, this will be the 384th time the team competes in Europe, while FC Kairat Almaty is up for a 69th time.
This will be the first time Club Brugge meets with a team from Kazachstan, making it the 39th country delivering an opponent for Club. For our hosts, this will also be the first time they meet with Belgian opposition.
Kairat's home ground will not be the venue for tonight's game, as the stage will be set in the capital Astana, where the Astana Arena, holding an audience of 30,244, is better suited to Winter time games. The Arena was opened back in 2009, and back in November it featured the game between Kazachstan and Belgium's Red Devils; it also has a roof that can be closed. The first two UCL home games against Real Madrid and Pafos were at their own Almaty Ortalyk Stadium, while the games against Olympiacos and now Club Brugge will be kicked off in Astana.
For the third time in history, a Belgian team will be making the trip to Kazachstan. Back in 2003, STVV visited FC Tobol Kostanay at the occasion of the UEFA Intertoto Cup 2nd round, resulting in a 1-0 win in Kostanay for the hosts, who had already beaten STVV 0-2 one week earlier in Belgium. In 2012, KRC Genk made the trip to Aktobe where locals FC Aktobe were beaten 2-1, just like in the home game.
Nicolò Tresoldi, Joaquin Seys, Carlos Forbs and Hans Vanaken top the ranking for Club this season, having scored three. With four goal involvements so far, Forbs has proven very productive, as this is the highest number of contributions by a Club player in any UCL year, a record he shares with Ferran Jutglà in 2022-23.
The Opponent
Founded in 1954, FC Kairat was originally dubbed Lokomotiv Alma-Ata, but that name made way for FC Kairat (meaning "fighting power" or "energy") in 1956. The team won the title on five occasions, and has lifted the national Cup a record ten times.
This will be the team's 13th season in Europe. A first shock was in 2018 as Kairat managed to get past Dutch AZ Alkmaar in the UEL preliminaries. Kairat's first participation in a group stage was in 2021-2022, where it ended last (2/18) in a group featuring FC Basel (Swi), Qarabağ FK (Aze) and AC Omonia (Cyp).
Having won the title in 2024, FC Kairat qualified for this European campaign after a thrilling title race in which they came out on top, one point in front of FC Astana. The current season has ended a couple of weeks ago, and for the first time Kairat made it a back-to-back title win, after a 1-1 draw end of October sufficed to keep FC Astana at bay.
In order to make it to the UCL League Phase, FC Kairat was presented with no fewer than four preliminary rounds:
- In Prelim1, they met with Slovenian NK Olimpija Ljubljana. A 1-1 away was followed up with a 2-0 home win.
- Next up was Finnish KuPS Kuopio in Prelim2. A 2-0 first leg defeat was made up with a 3-0 win at Kairat.
- Slovakians ŠK Slovan Bratislava were the next hurdle. Kairat won their first leg game 1-0, and after the same result at Slovan, penalties decided in Almaty's favour.
- The play-off round saw Celtic FC as the big name. No goals were scored in Scotland, and no goals followed in Kazachstan either. Once again, penalty shootouts came to the rescue, and for the second time in history, a team from Kazachstan made it to the UCL.
With six match days behind us in the League Phase, FC Kairat faces elimination, having harvested just the one point in 18. The team is in last position. The last official game of the team was back in December as Olympiacos travelled to Kazachstan. The new season will only start by the end of February. In order to gear up for the UCL encounters, the club is preparing in Abu Dhabi.
Managing Kairat is Rafael UrazBakhtin (47), active at the club since January 2023. He started out as a youth coach, then made it to the assistant coach job for the seniors, only to take over in September 2024. He went on to take the club to two titles and a UCL qualification.
With four goals so far, Dastan Satpaev tops the goal scorers table in the Champions League for the hosts.
Milestones
- Bjorn Meijer could be playing a 130th game for Club.
- Cisse Sandra could be wearing the Club shirt for the 40th time.
- For Carlos Forbs, this could be the 30th encounter for FCB.
- Both Joel Ordóñez and Hugo Verlesen prepare for a 30th game in Europe for Club.
- Joaquin Seys could be called upon in Europe for the 20th time.
- Manning goal tonight would mean Nordin Jackers is in his 10th game for Club in Europe.
- Should Simon Mignolet be preferred, this would be the 90th European game of his career (25 while at Liverpool FC, 64 for Club Brugge).
The Man in Black
Guiding the first European mission of 2026 will be a Lithuanian ref, Mr. Donatas Rumšas, backed by his linesmen Mr. Aleksandr Radiuš and Mr. Dovydas Sužiedėlis. Fourth official will be Mr. Robertas Valikonis. In charge of VAR will be Mr. Tomasz Kwiatkowski (Pol), backed by Mr. Pawel Pskit.
It will be the second time Mr. Rumšas is in charge of an official encounter featuring Club, as he was also the one handling the whistle at Bayern München in September. Mr. Rumšas is a 37-year old ref from Palanga, a city on the West coast of Lithuania, and he has been awarded Lithuanian top flight games since 2011, and has been an international referee since 2016. Mr. Rumšas is a UEFA Cat 1 ref.