What is the level of football in Kazakhstan now? Can beat the level of the European powerhouse Denmark!
In the early morning of the 27th Beijing time, a match in Group H of the European Cup qualifiers broke out, Kazakhstan scored three goals in the 73rd to 89th minutes after trailing by two goals at halftime, defeating Denmark 3-2. One is a traditional fish belly in Europe, ranked 115th in the world, and the other is a Nordic powerhouse ranked 18th, but this 97th ranking difference is not reflected in the final results. Kazakhstan's progress in football over the years has finally begun to be known and understood by everyone.
Due to its special geographical location, Kazakhstan competed in the Asian zone for some time after independence, but in 2002, Kazakhstan began to find its place in the highly competitive European zone. Unfortunately, due to the limitation of strength, their performance in the European Preliminary Round or the early stage of the World Preliminary Round was not ideal. Taking their first Intercontinental qualifier as an example, Kazakhstan was in the same group as Ukraine, Turkey, Denmark, European Cup winners Greece, Albania and Georgia in the 2006 World Cup European qualifiers in Germany, and ended up with only 1 draw, 11 losses and 1 point.
But the sluggish performance of the national team does not mean that Kazakhstan has been in a closed state in terms of football development, on the contrary, they have been working hard to run their own league for the past 10 years, and actively promote capable and potential young people to train in European high-level leagues. After the initial pains, since 2015, the country's Astana club has been able to play in the main matches of the Champions League and Europa League, which has played an extremely important role in promoting the understanding of Kazakhstani football.
As the saying goes, "effort always pays off", the club's continuous development in recent years has also given the national team a taste of sweetness, Kazakhstan's performance in the UEFA Nations League is getting better and better year by year, from the first UEFA Nations League can only participate in the D division, to last year the team has been promoted to B level, which is indeed a good result for Kazakhstani football. In terms of players, although there is no supernova like Georgia's Kvaratshelia, who has proven itself in the European giants, there are also many players who can play in the Russian Premier League or other leagues, such as the 24-year-old midfielder Zainutinov, who is currently playing an absolute main role in CSKA Moscow, which is worth 5 million euros.
In this European Preliminary Round, Kazakhstan and Denmark, Finland, Slovenia, San Marino and Northern Ireland are in the same group, from the perspective of the grouping situation, this is indeed a group that can make people hope to qualify, especially when the team lost to Slovenia in the first game, and defeated Denmark 3-2 at home in the second game, which makes people look forward to Kazakhstan to create a good result in this European Preliminary Round. For the team, which has never advanced to the final round of the continental competition, the main match of Euro 2024 seems to be a visible and tangible goal. The top two qualifiers in the group stage will advance directly to the main stage of the European Championship, and Kazakhstanis naturally do not want to miss such a good opportunity, especially after they have won the strongest team in the group, Denmark.
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Zhang Kunlong
Editor/Wang Haozhou