Danish football turned out to be not only myths, but also ghost stories. A two-goal lead at half-time, but in 16 minutes of the second half, Kazakhstan, ranked 115th in the world, completed a three-goal comeback, breaking the European Championship qualifiers.
Kazakhstan, which bid farewell to the AFC and moved to Europe, has come a long way in the past few years. From the domestic club Astana's European victory over Manchester United to this national team's victory, they are even expected to reach the Euro 2026 main stage.
01. Huge progress has been made in the past 20 years of leaving Asia and entering Europe: the national football team could not play 7 years ago
a. 3-goal victory over Denmark: Hoylund went from protagonist to supporting role
Facing a strong Danish team, Kazakhstan put up a 532 formation. The most famous player in the team is Zainudinov who plays for CSKA Moscow in the Russian Premier League.
There are also 2 players who play in the Belgian Second Division, and most of the others play for the domestic club Ban Ba Astana.
Supernova Hoylund, who scored a hat-trick on his national team debut in the last round of European qualifiers, continued his excellent performance. He scored twice in the first half, especially the first goal, which makes people have to sigh that he is extremely talented.
Chased by a number of giants such as Real Madrid, Manchester United, Juve and Arsenal, Hoylund's name has been on the headlines of the media recently.
Unexpectedly, his brilliant 5-goal success in 2 games only fired for 135 minutes, and the second half with Kazakhstan became the "ghost story" of Danish football.
Denmark's problems came from Darmsgaard and right-back Bach. In particular, the right flank after Bach's departure became the focus of the opponent's attack.
Zainudinov scored from a penalty to close the gap, followed by Taji's super long-range shot that allowed Kazakhstan to equalise in the 86th minute.
Just three minutes later, another cross from the Danish defence on the right flank was completed by Ainbetov's header from the back post.
With three goals in just 16 minutes, Kazakhstan completed an incredible comeback.
b. Leaving Asia and entering Europe has made great progress, and the national football team could not play them 7 years ago
Some fans joked that if Kazakhstan had not chosen to leave Asia to join UEFA in 2002, it would have been more difficult for the Chinese men's team to enter the World Cup.
The national football team has played against them three times in history, and won easily 3-0 in 1997 with goals from Fan Zhiyi, Li Bing and Li Jinyu. 10 years later, it was still Li Jinyu who scored, and the national football team narrowly won 2-1.
However, when the time came to June 2016, even if they played at home in Dalian, even if Wu Lei, Yang Xu, Hao Junmin, Wu Xi, Zhang Linpeng, Feng Xiaoting and Wang Dalei and other elites came out, the national football team still lost 0-1 to Kazakhstan.
In 2006, just after going to Europe, Kazakhstan won 12 games, 1 draw and 11 defeats in the World Qualifiers, which can be described as a real fishbelly team.
However, after 20 years of experience in the European football environment. Not only have domestic clubs repeatedly entered the Champions League and Europa League, but the results of the national team have also improved considerably.
02. Banba club Astana: From appearing in the Champions League to winning Manchester United in the Europa League
a. Seven years ago, the domestic banba club appeared in the main competition of the Champions League
The success of the national team first comes from the accumulation of domestic league heritage. Founded in 2009, Astana won the Kazakhstan Premier League that year.
In the summer of 2015, they started in the second round of Champions League qualifying, knocking out Slovenia Maribor and Finland HJK to reach the play-offs, and then narrowly beat Greek Atletico 2-1 in the last eight of the Champions League in two legs to make their first appearance in the main stage of the Champions League.
Even if there were no wins in the next six group games, it was still very convincing to draw four from Atletico, Benfica and Galatasaray.
b. Beat Manchester United in the Europa League 3 years ago
In the 2019-20 Europa League, Astana was in the same group as Manchester United. Visiting Old Trafford, they lost 1-0.
Back at home, after being scored first by Jesse Lingard, Astana scored two goals in a row to win the game and usher in his epic European victory.
Although United used a number of substitutes and missed great scoring opportunities in the game on several occasions. However, being able to slay the dragon at home is still a great achievement for the Astana club.
It is worth mentioning that at the end of 2019, Astana was still the top 4 club in the world with a fan growth rate. Tottenham won the top spot because Mourinho joined the team with an excellent record and qualified for the knockout stages of the Champions League.
Astana was able to join the list because of that win over Manchester United. It is worth mentioning that the main sponsor of this team is from a Chinese automobile company in the amount of 100 million tenge (the exchange rate with the yuan is 1 to 0.015).
In the 2021 International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS), the World's Best Football Club Rankings 2011-2020 (out of 140 teams), Astana was successfully shortlisted.
03. No longer a European fish belly: will they be seen in Euro 2026?
a. Stronger than 4 years ago: Ukraine drew twice in the World Qualifiers
The victory over Denmark this time was indeed a bit of a surprise. However, in recent years, Kazakhstan's record has gradually improved, and it has long ceased to be a European fish-belly team.
Although there is still a certain gap from the second tier in Europe, it is no accident to score points against a second-tier team.
Four years ago, in the Euro 2021 qualifiers, they finished fourth in their group with three wins, one draw and six defeats.
In the World Qualifiers, they drew twice more, resulting in the latter missing the play-offs despite finishing second in the group.
b. UEFA Nations League Group C 1st promotion to Group B: expected to appear in the main European Championship round
Because the emergence of the UEFA Nations League has given small football countries another opportunity to appear in the main game of the European Championship.
Whether you want to believe it or not, Kazakhstan beat Slovakia, the last European Championship round of 16, to finish first in the group, promoting Group B and securing a play-off place in the main European Championship competition.
Although Azerbaijan, Slovakia and Belarus are not really strong teams, it is still a testament to beating the knockout teams of the European Championship twice at home and away, while drawing one and one draw with Belarus.
Only after an early round of upgrades did the "release of water" lose to Azerbaijan for the first defeat. Kazakhstan dares to say to its opponents that it is already at least the third tier in Europe.
Conclusion:
In the past 20 years, there have been too many teams in world football that have become stronger. The expansion of the European Championship also allowed North Macedonia to make history. Let the Kazakhstan and Georgian teams see hope.
In contrast, our national football team reached its peak in 2002. After 21 years, we still need to work hard to reach the Asian round of 12 of the World Qualifiers.