Kairat Almaty vs Maccabi Haifa

Kairat Almaty and Maccabi Haifa are set to trade tackles at the Almaty Ortalyk Stadion in the return leg of their Champions League qualifying tie.

Despite trailing 1-0 at half-time in the first leg, Kairat pulled one back 15 minutes before the final whistle to keep this tie alive heading into the return leg. The hosts take the field unbeaten in ten consecutive games in all competitions (W7, D3), a run they embarked on back in mid-May. The ‘Nation’s Team’ have been particularly impressive at the back lately, keeping a clean sheet in five of their last eight competitive outings while conceding precisely once per game in two of the other three. Since being held to a 1-1 draw to Shakhtar Karagandy in early May, Kirill Keker’s men have racked up four straight competitive triumphs on home turf, notably netting 4+ goals on three occasions in the process.

Meanwhile, the visitors have alternated between winning (2) and draw (2) across their last four competitive matches following a 2-0 heartbreak in the Super Cup against Maccabi Tel-Aviv in mid-May. It was the only time in 17 fixtures across all competitions that Haifa failed to get on the scoresheet. After failing to win any of their first three competitive trips at the beginning of the calendar year (D1, L2), the ‘Greens’ have put together eight consecutive road trips without losing (W5, D3), scoring over 1.5 goals six times in the process. But, Haifa’s defensive frailties have seen them fail to keep a clean sheet in their last four away matches in a row, with 60% of their goals conceded in that time coming before half-time.