{"id":95347,"date":"2025-08-27T02:26:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T02:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/95347\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T02:26:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T02:26:08","slug":"celtic-miss-out-on-champions-league-after-penalty-shootout-defeat-by-kairat-almaty-champions-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/95347\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtic miss out on Champions League after penalty shootout defeat by Kairat Almaty | Champions League"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beyond midnight, many miles beyond the borders of Europe, Temirlan Anarbekov was writing his name into Celtic infamy. The 21\u2011year\u2011old rookie goalkeeper had made the penalty shootout saves that guided Kazakhstan\u2019s Kairat Almaty into the Champions League<\/a> group stage.<\/p>\n

Adam Idah, Luke McCowan and Daizen Maeda each saw attempts saved by a keeper turned to in emergency. Kasper Schmeichel, his opposite number, could only offer congratulations as Celtic<\/a> incurred the heavy cost of a poor performance over 210 goalless minutes before their lack of composure from the spot.<\/p>\n

The Celtic board\u2019s unpopular decision to wait for transfer business until Champions League qualification was banked now looks prudent. But would an injection of fresh attacking talent have made a difference? Where does this failure leave Brendan Rodgers\u2019s reign? To Celtic, reaching the elite competition would have been worth four times the qualification revenue and win bonuses of the Europa League. Instead, history and destiny lie with Kairat. From Kazakhstan, only Astana, a decade ago, had previously reached the Champions League group stage.<\/p>\n

Celtic will not be returning to the 36\u2011team group stage they graced last season, and from which they qualified into the knockouts. A \u201cbitterly disappointed\u201d Rodgers fronted up. \u201cIt\u2019s very frustrating,\u201d he said, harking back a year ago. \u201cWe showed a glimpse of what we can do at this level. But we haven\u2019t been able to show that over the course of these two games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Domestic dominance had allowed rotation from a weekend win against Livingston but a lack of quality peers is suboptimal for a key engagement so early in a season. That lack of fresh talent had caused fretting among Bhoys supporters, 300 of whom had travelled 3,500 miles to Central Asia. In Almaty, new calls of \u201csack the board\u201d were heard. An Old Firm derby with Rangers follows this Sunday.<\/p>\n

Quick GuidePafos edge out Red StarShow<\/p>\n

Newcomers from Cyprus and Norway also advanced on Tuesday night to the elite league phase. The Cypriot champions, Pafos, stunned Red Star Belgrade, the European champions in 1991, with an 89th-minute goal by the Brazilian forward Jaj\u00e1 to draw 1-1 at home and advance 3-2 on aggregate.\u00a0Bod\u00f8\/Glimt eased past Sturm Graz \u2014 winning 6-2 on aggregate despite a 2-1 second-leg loss in Austria \u2014 to bring league phase games to its stadium inside the Arctic Circle. Associated Press<\/p>\n

Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know the consequence,\u201d Rodgers said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t win the tie, then you drop into the Europa League. We want to be in the Champions League but we aren\u2019t.\u201d On a hot evening in an open-plan, hostile stadium, Rodgers\u2019s team struggled to break down a high-energy, highly motivated opponent. They returned to Glasgow in sorrow, embarking on what their manager described as a \u201clong, long journey \u2026 we\u2019ll just get back early hours of tomorrow morning and then we\u2019ll get ready for another big game Sunday\u201d.<\/p>\n

Not until midway through the first half did James Forrest have the first Celtic chance, saved by Anarbekov, standing in for the injured regular Aleksandr Zarutskiy, laying a marker for later heroics. Within a drab first half, high stakes flatlined entertainment value. Amid humidity and high altitude, Celtic levels dropped even from their equally drab first\u2011leg performance. Callum McGregor\u2019s blocked shot was their second \u2013 and last \u2013 effort of the half.<\/p>\n

Celtic\u2019s Kasper Schmeichel is beaten during the penalty shootout. Photograph: Pavel Mikheyev\/Reuters<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty scrappy, but we had moments and on another night probably go through, but you know, we\u2019d have to suck it up,\u201d said McGregor, the captain. \u201cWe are so disappointed. We really want Champions League football, but it shows you that on any given night you have to be on the level. If you don\u2019t quite carry the luck and you\u2019re not quite there, then you won\u2019t go through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodgers made copious notes during the first half but Celtic still lacked fluency in the second. Schmeichel almost came to grief when McGregor volleyed the ball backwards. In panic, the keeper punched the ball. An indirect free-kick resulted but Jorginho could only clatter into a mass of hooped shirts.<\/p>\n

Extra time and midnight local time beckoned, only for a golden chance to fall Maeda\u2019s way. Played clean through by McGregor, Anarbekov surging out, a wealth of options presented but the finish lacked any composure. Another 30 minutes of stalemate followed.<\/p>\n

There, concerted Celtic pressure at last arrived but Kairat held firm. Penalties would decide the far less lucrative fork in the road Celtic must now take. The Kazakh club are headed to Europe\u2019s promised land.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beyond midnight, many miles beyond the borders of Europe, Temirlan Anarbekov was writing his name into Celtic infamy.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-95347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}