Belarus pay penalty as Kazakhs begin with win

Kazakhstan made a successful start to 2013-15 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying courtesy of Bauyrzhan Islamkhan's second-half penalty in a 1-0 victory over Belarus.

The decisive action in the Group 10 qualifier in Borisov came ten minutes after half-time when Ilya Kalinin was impeded by Belarus captain Aleksandr Anyukevich and his opposite number Islamkhan converted from the spot. For all the hosts' pressure and possession, they were unable to break down Sergei Borovski's team.

The nearest Aleksei Vergeenko's men came to annulling Islamkhan's confidently dispatched spot kick was a Maksim Volodko shot that was charged down by Kazakhstani defenders 20 minutes after the breakthrough goal. Visiting keeper Stas Pokatilov was also tested twice by Yuri Kovalev, either side of the interval.

However, Kazakhstan were no less incisive as an attacking force, in the opening period at least, as home custodian Artem Soroko had to deal with attempts by Stanislav Lunin and Aleksandr Ulshin. At the other end, Gleb Rassadkin sent one costly miss over the Kazakh bar, however, as Belarus slumped to a second defeat in two group outings.