Club Brugge kept their hopes of qualifying for the knockout rounds of the Champions League alive with a 4-1 win over Kairat Almaty.

Aleksandar Stankovic opened the scoring shortly after the half-hour mark, while Hans Vanaken scored and then assisted Brandon Mechele either side of Romeo Vermant's goal to seal victory in Kazakhstan, ensuring Brugge can still finish in the top 24 of the league stage.

Brugge went close to taking the lead in the 18th minute when Mamadou Diakhon stuck the inside of the left post with a curling effort, but Stankovic eventually broke the deadlock when he lashed in, following Temirlan Anarbekov's poor punch from a cross.

And their lead was doubled before the break as Vanaken managed to turn the ball into the net with his shin after Joaquin Seys found the Brugge captain with his header back across goal.

Carlos Forbs went close on two occasions early in the second half, first seeing a close-range effort smothered by Anarbekov before his strike from Diakhon's cutback flew over the crossbar.

Brugge did eventually get a third, with Diakhon's low centre across the face of goal taking a slight deflection before reaching Vermant, who tapped into an unguarded net, while Mechele guided Vanaken's lofted pass beyond the reach of the goalkeeper in the 84th minute to wrap up the victory at Astana Arena.

Kairat did get a consolation goal in the second minute of stoppage time as Adilet Sadybekov brilliantly teed himself up before finding the bottom-left corner with a volley from distance.

Data Debrief: Diakhon does it all

Brugge were favourites to win, and they did so in style. They produced 2.23 expected goals (xG) from 17 shots to Kairat's 0.25 from eight attempts.

Diakhon was very unlucky to not register a goal or assist, first hitting the post before seeing his pass to Vermant take a slight deflection to take it off the stat sheet, but the midfielder still had an impressive game.

He created two chances, completed four of his six dribbles, won seven of his 13 duels, drew three fouls and won possession twice to help his side emerge victorious on the road.

In fact, it was Brugge's first away win in the competition after four consecutive losses, their second-longest such run in the competition (since 1992-93).