No team faces greater travel demands or will be asked to upset the odds more this Champions League campaign than Kairat Almaty, as the debutants host Real Madrid in a historic first home fixture on Tuesday.

Kairat crossed three time zones and a record-breaking 6,900km for their first match, losing 4-1 to Sporting in Lisbon, Portugal two weeks ago.

However, facing 15-time European champions Real Madrid is even more daunting, though their location could now level the playing field.

Xabi Alonso’s visitors will themselves travel 6,441km to play at the 24,000-seater Ortalyq Stadion, which is technically in central Asia.

“Flying to Kazakhstan is not easy,” defender Damir Kassabulat told BBC Sport. “Home games in Almaty will be a big advantage, and – with our fans – it will be like a fortress.”

Almaty, Kazakhstan’s former southern capital, is closer to Beijing than Madrid. The Spanish giants, meanwhile, have to fly for 13 hours to reach Almaty, a flight five hours longer than it would take to reach New York.

Yet, Kazakhstan has been part of European football since Uefa granted them membership in 2002.

“It’s historic that a Kazakh club qualified for the Champions League for the first time in a decade,” club president Kairat Boranbayev told BBC Sport. “It’s important financially and the entire country is behind us.

He then joked: “We congratulate Europe for expanding its borders to allow Kairat to play in these matches,” adding: “We believe we will make a bit of noise in Europe.”

Kairat remain massive underdogs with a squad valued at just £10.9m, while Real Madrid’s – featuring Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Jr and Jude Bellingham – is worth a competition-high £1.2bn, according to Transfermarkt.

No team faces greater geographical challenges than Kairat, who must travel about 25,000km for their four away matches – far more than any other team in the 36-team league phase.

“When we got into the Champions League, we understood there would be travel but it is a reward rather than a problem,” manager Rafael Urazbakhtin added.

“This is the toughest exam for our football but also a reward, dream come true and historic moment for Kazakh football.”