UEFA Conference League: 'Riga' Could Not Overcome Almaty 'Kairat' at Home

The match ended in a 1:1 draw. All goals were scored in the first half. Already in the fifth minute, the visitors took the lead. Riga's captain Raivis Jurkovskis committed a foul in his own penalty area, and Mark Gual converted the penalty — 1:0 in favor of Kairat. Gual shot into the lower left corner of the goal. Riga's goalkeeper Kenan Pirich guessed the direction of the shot but could not prevent the goal. In the 12th minute, 'Riga' equalized the score. Receiving a long pass on the right flank, Maxim Tonishev crossed the ball low into the center of the penalty area, and after a shot from Saladin Ulad, the ball ended up in the right corner of the goal. The visitors' goalkeeper Temirlan Anarbekov touched the ball, but it flew over him — 1:1. After that, the Rigan team had more ball possession, but there were few dangerous moments at the opponent's goal. The European Cup season for 'Riga' began with the UEFA Champions League qualification, where in the first round they lost to the Armenian champion Yerevan's 'Ararat-Armenia' with a score of 3:4 on aggregate. Then, in the UEFA Conference League qualification, the Rigan team defeated the North Macedonian team 'Vardar' 8:4 in the second round, the Hungarian 'ETO' from Győr 2:1 in the third round, and in the playoff round, they beat the KI club from Klaksvik in the Faroe Islands 2:1 as well. In the next rounds of the main stage, on October 22, the Rigan team will play away against Cypriot 'Paphos', on November 5 they will host Czech 'Jablonec' in Riga, on November 26 they will play against Kaunas' 'Zalgiris' in Lithuania, on December 10 they will host Italian 'Atalanta' from Bergamo at home, and on December 17 they will finish the main stage with an away match in Bosnia and Herzegovina against 'Borac'. 'Riga' became the third Latvian club to reach the group stage of UEFA club tournaments. In the 2009/2010 season, 'Ventspils' played in the group stage of the Europa League, and in the 2022/2023 season, RFS participated in the group stage of the Conference League. Two seasons later, RFS also reached the group stage of the Europa League.