UECL | Atalanta 1-1 Kairat Almaty: Dea crisis drags on with meagre point

BERGAMO, ITALY - NOVEMBER 05: Gianluca Scamacca of Atalanta BC competes for the ball with Gustavo Mendonca of FC Kairat Almaty during the UEFA Conference League 2026/27 League Phase MD3 match between Atalanta BC and FC Kairat Almaty at Stadio di Bergamo on November 05, 2026 in Bergamo, Italy. (Photo by Antonino Lagana/Getty Images)

The Atalanta wait for a victory drags on to seven matches, as they scraped a 1-1 draw with Kairat Almaty in the Conference League thanks to Nikola Krstovic.

La Dea were in crisis after scraping two draws from six competitive games, culminating in a humiliating 3-0 home defeat to Parma on Monday, so went into a three-day training retreat to prepare for this match. Thomas Kristensen, Gianluca Gaetano, Raoul Bellanova, Franck Kessie, Sead Kolasinac, Isak Hien, Giacomo Raspadori and Odilon Kossounou were injured, so youth team defender Javison Idele made his first start. They beat Pafos 3-1, but then lost 2-0 away to Ajax in this tournament.

Kairat Almaty dropped out of the Champions League and Europa League preliminary rounds after winning the Kazakhstan title, drawing at Riga and losing 5-1 to Panathinaikos in the Conference League.  Striker Jorginho had been out since July with a torn ACL, but this was only their second game under caretaker manager Zhora Arutyunyan.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

Jonathan Rowe stung the goalkeeper’s gloves from the edge of the area, then nodded over as the move continued.

Kairat almost scored a comical own goal when Damir Kassabulat didn’t look at his goalkeeper for a back pass, dribbling it wide of an open goal after 11 minutes.

A ferocious Rowe strike from outside the box was acrobatically palmed out from under the bar, while Marco Carnesecchi needed a double save on Alexandr Mrynskiy and the Gustavo Mendonca follow-up.

Atalanta should’ve taken the lead on the half-hour with a well-worked passing move, but Mario Pasalic only grazed the outside of the near post from close range.

La Dea were caught out on a classic counter-attack with an Edmilson pass from the centre-circle to send Marc Gual running against two defenders, beating the on-rushing Carnesecchi.

Idele couldn’t keep the volley down from seven yards on the Nicola Zalewski cross, while when Eljif Elmas did have the ball in the net on 65 minutes, he was offside to redirect the wayward Zalewski strike.

Elmas put real power behind his curling attempt from the edge of the box, forcing a flying save from the Kairat Almaty goalkeeper.

There was another tough save on the Ederson half-volley from close range and Atalanta equalised on the resulting flapped corner, as it was knocked back from the by-line by Relja Obric for Nikola Krstovic to bundle over the line from six yards.

Atalanta pushed to the bitter end and had a huge chance to win it in stoppages, but Mario Pasalic couldn’t keep the finish on target.

Marc Gual 53 (K), Krstovic 82 (A)

1st half

		20'		Gustavo Mendonça
Kamaldeen Sulemana		27'
Relja Obric		39'

2nd half

		53'		Marc Gual (Assist: Edmilson)
Gianluca Scamacca		57'
Nikola Krstovic (Assist: Relja Obric)		82'
		86'		Aleksandr Mrynskiy
		88'		Ismail Bekbolat
		88'		Oiva Jukkola

ATT

KAI

29

Goalkeeper

42

Defender

47

Defender

74'

40

Defender

99

Midfielder

41

Midfielder

11

Midfielder

58'

7

Midfielder

46'

10

Midfielder

58'

8

Midfielder

9

Attacker

67'

1

Goalkeeper

14

Defender

24

Defender

25

Defender

4

Defender

82'

3

Defender

22

Midfielder

82'

13

Midfielder

17

Attacker

62'

9

Attacker

63'

28

Attacker

73'

57

Goalkeeper

56

Defender

44

Midfielder

46

Midfielder

51

Goalkeeper

55

Defender

13

Midfielder

46'

59

Midfielder

58'

17

Attacker

58'

90

Attacker

67'

77

Defender

74'

5

Defender

82

Goalkeeper

15

Attacker