Kairat Almaty will play in the Champions League for the first time in its history, becoming the easternmost team to compete in Europe's top club competition.

THE UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WILL BE PLAYED IN THE MIDDLE OF ASIA

The Kazakh club reached the playoffs, leaving historic teams such as Slovan Bratislava and Celtic behind. And now they will have the honor of playing against Real Madrid, in what will be a momentous occasion for the team and the Asian country.

They will be the easternmost club to reach the Final Phase, with the unique feature that their headquarters are 300 kilometers from the Chinese border.  So far from the rest of Europe, they are a 13-hour commercial flight from Madrid.

They are only the second Kazakh team to qualify for the Champions League, matching the achievement of FC Astana, which did so in the 2015-16 season. Kairat Almaty will be in the Champions League as the 33rd league champion out of 55 in the UEFA ranking.

THEY WILL TRAVEL AROUND THE WORLD

Being so far from the center of Europe, Kairat Almaty will travel a whopping 44,982 km (more than once around the planet) to play their away games in the UEFA Champions League group stage, as they will be in London, Lisbon, Copenhagen, and Milan.

WHY DO THEY PLAY IN EUROPE?

After the breakup of the USSR in 1992, Kazakhstan became an independent nation and two years later joined FIFA as a federation. Initially, it was part of the Asian Football Confederation; however, given that part of its territory, between 10 and 15 percent of the country, is in Europe, this was the main argument for its inclusion in 2002, when it was admitted by UEFA.