ASTANA: Injury-hit Northern Ireland were beaten by Kazakhstan at the Euro 2024 qualifier.
This was Norther Ireland’s five successive defeats.
A superb first-half goal by Maxim Samorodov was the difference in a drab, tight encounter in Astana.
Conor McMenamin missed an excellent chance to equalise for the visitors before the break and Conor Washington had a second-half shot saved.
Northern Ireland have just three points from their opening six Group H matches.
They went into this week’s double-header with very little prospect of qualifying for the finals in Germany next summer and now sit nine points behind the group leaders with four matches to play.