“Under Adiev, our team was lucky and we scored points where we shouldn’t have.” Almas Kulshinbaev assessed the draw for the 2026 World Cup selection and the level of the opponents of the Kazakhstan national team – Football

In Group J, the opponents of Stanislav Cherchesov's team will be the teams of Belgium, Wales, North Macedonia and Liechtenstein. The group stage of European qualifying for the 2026 World Cup will last from March to November 2025, with the play-offs taking place from 26 to 31 March 2026.

A correspondent for the republican Internet portal Sports.kz contacted famous Kazakh football specialist Almas Kulshinbaevwho shared his opinion on the results of the 2026 World Cup selection draw and assessed the level of Kazakhstan’s upcoming opponents.

— Almas Zhakhanovich, how do you generally assess the selection draw for the 2024 World Cup for Kazakhstan?
— At the level of other teams, we can say that Kazakhstan’s group is not the most difficult. It seems to me that this group is even weaker than our team had in the last qualifying round.

— What can you say about the level…