Police in Kazakhstan didn't see the funny side when Chelsea fans tried to enter the Almaty Ortalyq Stadium on Thursday with a Borat-inspired flag.
The Blues all but confirmed passage to the last 16 of the Conference League with a 3-1 win against Astana in Kazakhstan as Enzo Maresca handed chances to a number of youth players.
Some of Chelsea's most dedicated supporters traveled the 3,500 miles to watch their team secure victory in -12 degrees Celsius.
And one group even had a special flag made for the occasion.
The TikTok account @cfchomeandaway shared a photo of the banner, which showed Sacha Baron Cohen's legendary character Borat in a Chelsea shirt with his thumbs up and some of the country's flags in his hands.
“I follow Chelsea home and away,” it said, adding Borat's famous catchphrase “very nice.”
And they then posted a video of the Kazakh police confiscating the goods and making it clear that this would not be allowed on the ground.
They wrote in the video: 'RIP flag, police didn't see the funny side of it.'
Borat Sagdiyev is a controversial fictional character created and played by Cohen, depicted as a Kazakh television journalist.
There has been criticism that the documentaries' portrayal of the people of Kazakhstan is unfair and unjustified.
The fans will no doubt have enjoyed their evening despite the loss of the flag, as their team claimed a deserved win.
Maresca made a full debut ahead of two academy graduates, Josh Acheampong, 18, and 19-year-old midfielder Samuel Rak-Sakyi.
Fellow teenager Marc Guiu, a relative veteran with six previous Chelsea starts, scored twice in the opening 18 minutes before Renato Veiga headed in his second for the club before half-time.
Guiu's opener was a fine solo performance. He collected the ball almost on the touchline on the right and set up full-back Aleksandr Marochkin before going past him into the penalty area and poking the ball into the post for his second Chelsea goal.
Astana already looked hopelessly stretched. Neto was the next to take advantage, shooting past the outside of his defender and crossing low towards Guiu. Seysen dived to get his hands on the ball, but could only put it in danger again when it bounced between Guiu and Marochkin and over the line.
Carney Chukwuemeka saw a shot go wide after being given space, but Astana ignored the warning. From the resulting corner, Veiga was given Almaty's freedom to rise and plant his header past the goalkeeper.
A torrid evening for Astana was made even more palatable when Tomasov evaded Veiga's attention and fired home the goal of the evening, with his strike sailing past Filip Jorgensen's reach and wide of the post.
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