Faroe Islands vs Kazakhstan prediction and predicted line-ups: John van 't Schip's competitive debut. Nations League
John van 't Schip's first competitive game as Kazakhstan coach comes in Tórshavn, where they have never won. Kasym and Chesnokov are out, and Maliy can equal the caps record. Kick-off, team news, line-ups.
John van 't Schip, the Dutchman who played for Genoa and has coached Greece, takes charge of Kazakhstan in a competitive game for the first time on Saturday 26 September in Tórshavn, against the Faroe Islands. Kazakhstan have never won in the Faroes: three games there, two defeats and a draw. The last meeting, a friendly in Pula on 18 November 2025, went 1-0 to the Faroes with a goal from Petur Knudsen.
Faroe Islands vs Kazakhstan: kick-off time and venue
Faroe Islands vs Kazakhstan kicks off at 17:00 UK and local time (18:00 CEST) on Saturday 26 September at the Tórsvøllur in Tórshavn. It is Group C3 of League C in the Nations League, with Slovakia and Moldova, and the group winners go up to League B. The two sides meet again in Astana on 6 October.
Team news
Van 't Schip lost two players on Tuesday 22 September: the Kazakhstan federation said defender Alibek Kasym of Astana will miss both away games, in the Faroes and Slovakia, and that Krylia Sovetov winger Islam Chesnokov is out of all four. The Kazakh press see Sergey Maliy, 36, as the favourite to replace Kasym: he has 75 caps and would equal Samat Smakov's national record of 76 if he plays.
Eyðun Klakstein has to rebuild his midfield without the injured Hallur Hansson, René Shaki Joensen, Brandur Hendriksson Olsen, Noah Mneney and Jákup Biskopstø Andreasen, and without Árni Frederiksberg, who has retired from international football. On Tuesday forward Páll Andrasson Klettskarð left the camp with a minor injury and was replaced by Jørgen Nielsen of Víkingur. On the same day Verona defender Andrias Edmundsson, who plays in Italy's Serie B, told the Faroese federation's website: “Vit fara sjálvandi eftir at fáa so nógv stig sum gjørligt” (Of course we are going for as many points as possible).
Faroe Islands vs Kazakhstan predicted line-ups
Neither XI holds up. No Faroes preview with a line-up has appeared; a Faroese journalist says the side switch between 3-4-3 and 5-4-1. The midfield is new, with youngsters Mattias Hellisdal and Emil Weihe Joensen in the squad, and with Klettskarð gone the forwards are Petur Knudsen, the top scorer in the Faroese league, Adrian Justinussen and Nielsen. For Kazakhstan the only preview with a team came out before Kasym and Chesnokov dropped out. The fixed points are captain Nuraly Alip at centre-back, with Maliy the favourite to partner him, and Yan Vorogovskiy at left-back; in goal it is Sabah's Stas Pokatilov or Temirlan Anarbekov, and up front one of Elkhan Astanov, Artur Shushenachev and Ramazan Karimov. The official line-ups are released about an hour before kick-off.
Head-to-head and form
Five previous meetings: three Faroes wins, one draw and one Kazakhstan win. Besides the 1-0 in Pula, Kazakhstan won 2-1 at home and drew 1-1 in Tórshavn in qualifying for the 2014 World Cup. In their last five competitive games the Faroes won 1-0 in Gibraltar, 4-0 against Montenegro and 2-1 against the Czech Republic, and lost twice to Croatia. Kazakhstan's last five: a 1-0 defeat by Wales, a 6-0 loss in Belgium, a 4-0 win over Liechtenstein, and 1-1 draws in North Macedonia and at home to Belgium.
Our Faroe Islands vs Kazakhstan prediction
Our call is no more than four goals, confidence 6 out of 10. None of the Faroes' last five competitive games produced more than four goals, and the last three meetings had three at most. Kazakhstan are also without Chesnokov in attack and Kasym in defence.
Every game with our calls is on the Nations League page. The record of settled calls is in the results history, and our calls on individual players are in player predictions.
