When you’ve suffered a historically heavy defeat, a change of scenery might do you good. If that’s the case, Real Madrid’s players are in luck. Just 19 hours after losing 5-2 in the derby at Atlético Madrid on Saturday, Los Blancos were boarding a flight to Kazakhstan.
They’ve just travelled 4,000 miles east — from Western Europe to Central Asia — to play Kairat Almaty in the UEFA Champions League. Spanish newspaper Diario AS described Madrid’s trip as “therapy at 30,000 feet;” another newspaper, Marca, said the journey came “at the worst possible time.”
If conceding five goals in a derby was uncharted territory — before Saturday’s humbling loss at the Metropolitano, it hadn’t happened for 75 years — then this is an equally novel experience for Madrid.
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Almaty, Kazakhstan’s historic and cultural capital, has a longitude of 76.939948°. No Champions League game has ever been played this far east. It’s a similar longitude to New Delhi, India. Head east from Almaty, along the A-351 highway, and the border with China is just a four-hour drive away.
Kairat are competing in the Champions League for the first time in their 71-year history. Matchday one saw them beaten 4-1 in Lisbon at Sporting CP. Now, they’re hosting the 15-time European champions.
Real Madrid’s players boarded their charter flight at Madrid’s Barajas Airport on Sunday at around 1 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET). Almost eight hours later — at midnight in Almaty, which is three hours ahead of Spain — they were touching down in Kazakhstan, at Almaty International Airport.
Outside, they were greeted by a somewhat surreal, but charming, cultural display, as locals in traditional Kazakh clothing, gathered around a yurt, played the Champions League anthem on Kazakh folk instruments including a dombra (a bit like a guitar) and a zither-like zhetygen. Then it was off to Almaty’s five-star InterContinental Hotel, around half an hour away in the city center. A room costs between €250-€450 a night. Reviews praise its central location, and buffet breakfast.
Almaty is no backwater. It’s the biggest city in Kazakhstan, the world’s ninth-biggest country by area. It is a regional and cultural hub, and has been for centuries. Despite the nearby, often snow-capped Tian Shan mountain range, it’s hot in September: temperatures peaked at 81 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday, with 30% humidity.
On Sunday night, a few hundred fans gathered outside the team hotel, to welcome the players on arrival. “I’ve been a Real Madrid fan since childhood. I want to get your autograph,” one poster, held aloft by a young fan, politely requested. There was also a heavy police presence.
The distance between Real Madrid and Kairat isn’t just measured in miles (4,000), or European Cups (15-0). Kairat are a big club in Kazakhstan, and regularly featured in the first division during the Soviet Union era, but their pedigree at this level is limited. This, without question, is the most high-profile game in their history.
The Kazakhstan Football Federation joined UEFA in 2002. Since then, when Kairat have qualified for European competitions, they’ve often stalled in the qualifying rounds of the UEFA Europa League.
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In 2021-22, they played the Champions League qualifiers — losing to Red Star Belgrade — and then dropped into the newly-formed UEFA Conference League, where they competed in the group stage.
This season, they came through three qualifiers — overcoming Slovenia’s Olimpija Ljubljana, Finland’s Kuopion Palloseura, and Slovakia’s Slovan Bratislava — to reach the Champions League playoffs, where they beat Celtic on penalties. And now, it’s Real Madrid, with Inter Milan and Arsenal — both away — to come later in the league phase.
There’s no early-season rustiness for Kairat. The Kazakhstan Premier League season begins in March, and runs until late October. Kairat, the reigning champions, are second in the table, a point behind rivals Astana — the only Kazakh team to have previously featured in the Champions League — having played one game fewer.
Kairat’s home, Almaty Central Stadium, holds a maximum of 25,000 people. Attendances are often much lower, but 22,800 attended Kairat’s win over Celtic in the playoffs, a game that — after extra time and a shootout — ended well after midnight.
Few Madrid fans are expected to make the trip to Almaty from Spain. For those wishing to attend, the journey — in the best-case scenario — involved a seven-hour flight from Madrid on Monday, a two-hour stop-over in Doha, Qatar, and then another, four-hour flight to Almaty, arriving at 2 a.m. on Tuesday, with the return departing at 3.30 a.m. on Wednesday, after the game. All this, having just seen their team beaten 5-2 in the derby. You could forgive them for staying at home.
Coach Xabi Alonso admitted that Saturday’s defeat “hurt” Madrid’s players and fans, saying “what’s important is how we react.” Their first opportunity to do so comes in a city that’s closer to Tokyo or Singapore than Madrid.
From winning the first five editions of the European Cup, to a 2016-2018 three-peat, to their extraordinary 2022 comeback run, Real Madrid thought they’d done it all in the Champions League. But it turns out that there’s still some new territory left to conquer.
