January 9, 2026 (20:03)
Almaty “Courage» held the first test match as part of the training camp in Abu Dhabi (UAE) against the Baku “Neftchi” (0:3), reports Sports.kz with reference to the press service of the club from Azerbaijan.
The match ended in a crushing defeat for the team led by Rafael Urazbakhtin with a score of 0:3. The Baku team scored: Alyansky, 67 (1:0), Abubakar, 89 (2:0), Mamedov, 90+2 (3:0).
The next friendly match of the Almaty team will take place on January 14 against the Croatian Varazdin.
The KPL-2025 champion will complete his training in the UAE on January 15 and will continue his performance in the general stage of the Champions League: on January 20, the club will have a home match of the 7th round of the main European Cup against the Belgian Brugge, which will take place in Astana.
Neftchi is a 9-time champion and 6-time winner of the Azerbaijan Cup. He also has two victories in the country’s Super Cup. Among the international achievements of the Baku club, it can be noted that it was a finalist of the 2008 UEFA Intertoto Cup (the ideological predecessor of the Conference League).
Let us note that in 1991, “Kairat” and the Azerbaijani “Neftchi” met in a match of the USSR First League, and then the Almaty team won with a score of 5:1.
