Alma taste international success

With the second qualifying round of the UEFA Women's Cup starting next month, uefa.com is taking a detailed look at each of the 16 clubs looking to progress to the quarter-finals and beyond. Today, we focus on Alma KTZH of Kazakhstan.

Almaty-based Alma KTZH won have only been going for ten years - but have already picked up seven Kazakhstan league titles as well a Russian first division crown.

European bow
In 2004 they made two bits of history. They made their UEFA Women's Cup debut and became the first team from Kazakhstan to top a mini-tournament in any European competition as they defeated FC LP Super Sport, FK MŠK Žiar nad Hronom and SK Slavia Praha to win first qualifying round Group A1. SK Trondheims-Ørn, Brøndby IF and Russia's FC Energy Voronezh proved too tough in the next stage, but there was more 'international' success when Alma entered the second level of Russian football. Basing themselves in the Moscow region town of Kolomna, they finished top but were ineligible for promotion.

Tough task
Kazakhstan's champions again, Alma were back in Europe the next season and again progressed to the second stage - but a win against ZFK Mašinac-Classic Niš was followed by defeats by eventual finalists Djurgården/Älvsjö and Valur Reykjavík. Last season Alma fell at the first hurdle as only one team were to get through the group and they had the misfortune to be drawn with Russia's WFC Rossiyanka, who won 5-2.

International flavour
Still, there were no such problems this season as Alma defeated FC Narta Chisinau and Ruslan '93 5-0 before overcoming 1. FC Femina Budapest 3-1 to get through having again dominated their domestic competition. Most of the Kazakhstan national side are in Alma's ranks, including leading scorer Mariya Yalova, and they are bolstered by players from Belarus, Romania and Russia, who supply 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup veteran Alexandra Svetlitskaya. Oxana Chskuzenko and Yekaterina Krassyukova are twin pillars in defence.

Improvement
Football Federation of Kazakhstan women's department head Boris Yemelin, who has coached both Alma and the national team in the past, said: "The team played to their true level in the UEFA Women's Cup first qualifying round and allowed their opponents no doubts about their superiority. We had a tough task to progress to the next stage and our coaching staff headed by Nikolay Alexandrov managed to do so. Now we will have much stronger opponents in Europe but we have a decent team that I hope will play with dignity."