Olympiacos beat Kairat Almaty to record their first win in this season’s Champions League and keep alive their hopes of progress.
After two draws and three losses from their opening five games, the Greek champions took the three points in Kazakhstan thanks to a powerful low strike from Gelson Martins.
But the margin of victory should have been far greater, with the visitors repeatedly frustrated in Astana by an inspired performance from home goalkeeper Temirlan Anarbekov.
He made three superb saves to deny Ayoub El Kaabi and also kept out a powerful strike from Francisco Chiquinho, before he was finally beaten in the 73rd minute.
Anarbekov then pushed Mehdi Taremi’s effort on to the post and El Kaabi’s attempt against the crossbar, with the Moroccan forward, 32, also hitting the woodwork with a separate effort.
The success ended a run of 12 successive away defeats in the competition for Olympiacos, who have five points in the standings.
Last season, Club Brugge earned 11 points to finish 24th in the league phase and take the last play-off spot for the next round.
Olympiacos would need to win their final two games – at home to Bayer Leverkusen on 20 January and away to Ajax on 28 January – to reach the 11-point mark.
Kairat had to play eight qualifying matches to get into the league phase, including a penalty shootout win over Celtic in the play-off round, but have only one point from their six games.
They also became the first side in the competition – since Slovakian side FC VSS Kosice in 1997-98 – not to score in their first three home matches as they were shut out on Tuesday night.
Kairat’s last two games are at home to Club Brugge on 20 January, before a visit to Arsenal on 28 January.
