Kazakhstan’s FC Kairat Almaty secured a place in the 2025-26 UEFA Champions League league phase for the first time, edging Celtic 3-2 on penalties after the tie finished goalless over two legs. Twenty-one-year-old goalkeeper Temirlan Anarbekov saved three spot-kicks in the shoot-out in Almaty, completing a qualifying campaign in which Kairat did not concede at home across four rounds. Ranked 315th in UEFA’s club coefficient, Kairat becomes only the second Kazakh side to reach Europe’s premier competition after FC Astana’s 2015-16 run. The club joins fellow first-time qualifiers Pafos of Cyprus and Norway’s Bodø/Glimt in the expanded 36-team field that replaces the traditional group stage. The league-phase draw will be held on 28 August at Monaco’s Grimaldi Forum, with software assigning each team eight opponents—two from each of four seeding pots—and prohibiting more than two rivals from the same federation. The opening match-week is scheduled for 16-18 September, and the top eight finishers after eight rounds will advance directly to the round of 16.