Kazakhstan gain sweet Armenia revenge

Kazakhstan dragged themselves off the foot of qualifying Group 10 and gained revenge for August's home defeat against Armenia, edging past the hosts in Yerevan.

Rafayel Nazaryan's men opened their account in the section with that win two months ago, but hopes of completing the double were hit when Roman Murtazayev put the visitors ahead on 31 minutes. Davit Hakobyan levelled after the break but Abzal Beisebekov grabbed the winner in style to send his side third.

Equally matched, the sides cancelled each other out in the early exchanges but the breakthrough came when Murtazayev converted from eight metres following Beisebekov's cross. The man who supplied the assist was then denied by Gor Manukyan in the home goal and the keeper excelled again on the stroke of half-time to keep out Aleksandr Ulshin's free-kick.

Hakobyan's precision header levelled matters just after the restart but Beisebekov won it with a beautiful header of his own, converting Ilya Kalinin's left-wing cross 18 minutes from time.