Almaty's Kairat, playing a man down from the 11th minute, lost 0:1 to the hosts at Astana Arena and opened the path to the KPL title for Shymkent's Ordabasy. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.

The key moment of the latest El Clasico came right at the start of the match. In the 9th minute, Adilet Sadybekov crudely brought down Stanislav Basmanov, a new call-up to the Kazakhstan national team, near his own penalty area. Referee Denis Tevyashov immediately gave the Kairat holding midfielder a yellow card. However, after advice from the video assistant, he looked at the foul more closely and replaced the yellow card with a red.

In the 11th minute the visitors were left with ten men, and in the 14th they conceded a goal. A cross from Croatian Karlo Bartolec was headed home by Ramazan Karimov. A desperate dive by Sherkhan Kalmurza, who replaced Temirlan Anarbekov in goal, did not help the visitors. The Almaty side's first-choice goalkeeper had failed to save them in the previous round's home match against Tobol (1:4).

Playing a man down for almost the entire match, Kairat managed to create a couple of dangerous moments at the opposition goal. But that was all. Having lost their second match in a row, the Almaty side essentially rolled out the red carpet for Ordabasy on their path to the championship. The Shymkent club gladly took the opportunity. A hat-trick by Norwegian Bjorn Johnsen brought them a 3:0 victory over Atyrau in Turkestan.

Astana, which had recently threatened to finish the championship early, took a big step toward bronze medals and a ticket to the 2027 European competitions.

⚽ ASTANA – KAIRAT (Almaty) 1:0 (0:0). Goal: Karimov 14. Sent off: Sadybekov (K, 11)

⚽ TOBOL (Kostanay) – ELIMAI (Semey) 0:2 (0:2). Goals: Plakka 16 penalty (0:2), Zhaksylykov 40 (0:2)

⚽ ATYRAU – ORDABASY (Shymkent) 0:3 (0:1). Goals: Johnsen 20 (0:1), Johnsen 54 (0:2), Johnsen 90+2 (0:3)

Tobol, which sensationally beat Kairat in Almaty in the previous round, lost at home to Elimai 0:2. Semey's Togolese player Elosh Plakka and Aibar Zhaksylykov set the final score before the break.

Tomorrow the 27th round of the 2026 KPL will conclude with the matches Okzhetpes – Zhenis, Aktobe – Ulytau, Zhetysu – Kaspiy, Altai – Irtysh and Kyzylzhar – Kaisar.