  We have calculated the NLO corrections for the leading twist amplitude of the
reaction $\gamma^*\gamma\to\pi\pi$ at large virtuality of the photon and at
$W^2\ll Q^2$. With a simple model for the two-pion quark and gluon distribution
amplitudes we have estimated that the NLO effects may reduce the leading-order
amplitude by as much as 30%. We have found that besides the usual twist-2 quark
and gluon operators the NLO amplitude receives contribution from a distribution
associated with twist-2 tensor gluon operator. The new gluon distribution can
be investigated by studying the azimuthal asymmetry of the cross section for
$e+\gamma\to e'+\pi\pi$.
