As the race for the lead in the UEFA Nations League continues, Kazakhstan and Slovenia had a crucial match encounter on October 13,2024 at the Central Stadium in Almaty, Kazakhstan. At the end of the match, Slovenia emerged with a victorious win of 1-0, in respect to Jan Mlakar’s 55th minute goal. The result of this ultimate encounter had a great impact on the chances of the two great teams in qualifying for the 2024 European Championship and it also aided Slovenia to move up to second place in their Nations League group, leaving Kazakhstan at the bottom.
The result of the match had added more to the reputation of Slovenia, they had won Kazakhstan twice in their previous encounters, which included last month match held in Ljubljana which ended in a 3-0 win. In addition, Kazakhstan has been on a great loss as they had lost six of their last seven games.
Coming over to the match event, Kazakhstan had began off with a wonderful start in the first half of the match. They had almost got a leading goal in the 10th minute but it was disrupted by the Slovenia goalkeeper, Jan Oblak. As the match continued, Slovenia had started gaining control gradually, as Josip Ilicic had a nice shot which was skillfully intercepted by Kazakhstan defense player, in the 25th minute. However, they had the first half end goalless, but with Slovenia with a leading possession.
As the second half began, the intensity of the match had a continuous push. In the 55th minute, Jan Mlakar broken the goalless draw with his clinical finish, leading to the first goal of the match. Kazakhstan continued to struggle so as to equalize the the goal but Slovenia’s defense held a tight wall. In the 85th minute, an unlucky strike from Slovenia’s Andraz Sporar hit the goal post, which derailed the chance of sealing the win. The match ended within both teams possession as; Slovenia (47.8%) and Kazakhstan (52.2%). Slovenia had a total shot of 7, and Kazakhstan also had a total shots of 7. Though, Slovenia had 4 shots on target while Kazakhstan had 3 shots on target. Slovenia also led the in the number of corners by 5, as Kazakhstan had 4. Then, Kazakhstan had the highest number of fouls(12) while Slovenia had 8 fouls. However, both teams had yellow cards bringing to a total of five yellow cards, Kazakhstan (4) and Slovenia (1). The substitutions held in the match include; Z. Payruz replacing A. Darabaev(for Kazakhstan), A. Zhaksylykov replacing A. Aimbetov(for Kazakhstan), J. Kurtic replacing J. Mlakar(for Slovenia) and then D. Petrovic replacing J. Illicic(for Slovenia).
In conclusion, the 1-0 win of Slovenia had propelled them to the second place in their group, and had also kept Kazakhstan in the bottom. Despite the resilient defensive efforts by Kazakhstan, Slovenia made sure its possession dominance and chances paid off. It shows the weakening point of Kazakhstan in their attacking strategies and goal scoring.
As the Kazakhstan coach, Magomed Adiyev, had said “We lacked creativity in attack. We will work on it “, there is hope for Kazakhstan to regroup, focus and work on their flaws, so they can achieve unexpected success. There is also expectations for Slovenia to continue building more momentum for their upcoming events.
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