Omonia were eliminated from the Uefa Champions League on Wednesday after losing 6-5 on penalties to Kazakhstan’s Kairat Almaty in their second qualifying round tie, with the capital side now dropping into the Europa League qualifiers.

The Cypriot side lost 1-0 after extra time in Almaty, leaving the aggregate score level following their first leg victory in Nicosia.

Kairat progressed after Panayiotis Panayiotou missed the decisive penalty in the shootout.

Omonia’s task became significantly harder in the 26th minute when Andronikos Kakoli was shown a straight red card for a challenge which was upheld following a VAR review.

Kairat made their numerical advantage count in the 38th minute when Edmilson headed past Fabiano to level the tie-on aggregate.

Despite playing with ten men for more than 90 minutes, Omonia held on through the remainder of normal time and much of extra time, with goalkeeper Fabiano producing a series of important saves to keep his side in the contest.

The visitors’ problems deepened in the 111th minute when Senou Coulibaly received a second yellow card, reducing Omonia to nine players for the closing stages of extra time.

Kairat failed to find a second goal, sending the match to penalties.

Fabiano kept Omonia in contention by saving Baibek’s spot kick, but Balkovec’s penalty was saved by Aleksandr Anarbekov before Panayiotou’s effort was also stopped, allowing Kairat to secure a 6-5 shootout victory.

Omonia will now continue their European campaign in the third qualifying round of the Uefa Europa League, where they will face Gibraltar’s Lincoln Red Imps.

The first leg is scheduled for August 6 in Gibraltar, with the return leg to be played in Nicosia a week later.