We recap the final round of the Freedom QJ League B season.
Three teams were still in contention for the championship – so League representatives took sets of gold medals to Almaty, Oral and Balpyk Bi. The results ultimately meant they were needed in the southern capital.
Khan-Tengri are champions!
Khan-Tengri won the tournament with 39 points, finishing just two points ahead of their closest challengers.
The Almaty side beat Atyrau 3:1 at home. The visitors opened the scoring, with Nurbek Amangeldi finding the net in the 25th minute. Timur Deshko turned the game around with a brace, before Abdulkarim Seksembay sealed the result late on.
Almaty is celebrating City Day today – making Khan-Tengri’s title triumph particularly symbolic.
Shock in Balpyk Bi
Zhenis entered the final round as the main favourites for the title, and the championship was ultimately decided by the capital side dropping points.
Zhetysu were the team that denied the leaders the title. The match in Balpyk Bi ended with the narrowest of margins – home forward Yernur Tashmukhambet scored the decisive goal in the dying moments. It was his only goal of the season.
Another major factor in Zhenis’ defeat was the 58th-minute dismissal of Yerdaulet Ismailov, who received a second yellow card.
To make matters worse for the capital club, they finished the season not in second place but third – with the silver medals going to Jaiyq.
Nine-goal thriller between Jaiyq and Okzhetpes
The match in Oral was the highest-scoring game of the round – Jaiyq edged Okzhetpes 5:4 in a nine-goal thriller.
Although the visitors from Kokshetau opened the scoring in the very first minute, the hosts were three goals ahead by the 63rd minute – 5:2. However, Jaiyq supporters had to endure a nervous finish as goals from Arsen Arapov, from the penalty spot, and Anar Mirzayev brought the visitors back into contention.
Jaiyq nevertheless held on to claim all three points and draw level with the defeated Zhenis. The final positions were decided by the additional tiebreakers: Jaiyq had won both head-to-head meetings against the capital side, 2:0 and 1:0.
Mid-table and the bottom of the standings
Zhetysu finished fourth with 29 points. Okzhetpes (26) took fifth, ending the season with three consecutive defeats despite ranking third in the league for goals scored with 42.
Atyrau and Ontustyk both collected 22 points and finished with the same goal difference (-3), but Atyrau took sixth place based on their head-to-head record: they lost the first meeting 3:0 before winning the return fixture 4:0. Yelimay finished eighth with 17 points.
Kyzylzhar (14 points) and Altai (13) rounded out the standings. Despite finishing bottom of the table, Altai ended the championship on a positive note with two consecutive victories, including today’s 3:0 win in Petropavl.
Individual achievements
Zhanadi Zhumabek of Khan-Tengri finished as the season’s top scorer with 12 goals, none of them from the penalty spot. He also led the league in combined goals and assists with 17.
Nuraly Sabyrzhan of Okzhetpes and Alexey Poberezhny of Jaiyq finished as the league’s top assist providers with six each.
