Uzbekistan on brink of quarter-finals
Reuters - Wednesday 12 January 2011, 16:33
DOHA - Uzbekistan are on the brink of
reaching the Asian Cup quarter-finals after they beat Kuwait 2-1
on Wednesday thanks to a superb strike from former Asian
player-of-the-year Server Djeparov.
With the game locked at 1-1 with 25 minutes remaining and
Kuwait threatening, Djeparov took advantage of space on the edge
of the area to fire a first-time, left-foot shot which curled
away from a diving Yaqoub Al Taher in the Kuwait goal.
The result put Uzbekistan on six points in Group A after
their second win of the tournament and left Kuwait on the brink
of an early exit.
"Our game is very good. I'm very happy we beat Kuwait today
and I think we can make a surprise," coach Vadim Abramov told
reporters after equalling their tournament best quarter-finals
appearances in 2004 and 2007.
"If my team can qualify for the semi-finals that will be a
very good result for us."
An entertaining second-half was in mark contrast to a drab
first, which was witnessed by just 3,481 fans at the 22,000
capacity Al Gharafa Stadium on another chilly early evening in
Doha.
The Uzbeks enjoyed the best of the first-half, producing a
number of neat, short passing moves but, lacking pace in attack,
they came to nothing.
They took the lead, however, four minutes before the
interval in fortunate circumstances when Maksim Shatskikh's
22-metre free-kick took a big deflection off a team mate.
The 32-year-old struck a curling right-foot effort which
struck the back of a ducking Azizbek Haydarov, who was making a
nuisance of himself in the defensive wall, which diverted the
ball past a befuddled Al Taher.
"That's two goals from a deflection, maybe sometimes your
team needs a little luck," Kuwait coach Goran Tufegdzic
bemoaned, referring to the first goal they conceded to China in
their opening match.
Kuwait began the second half in a much brighter, energetic
fashion with substitute Hamad Nayef going very close with a
glancing header within 90 seconds of the restart before earning
his team a penalty minutes later.
The diminutive striker was brought down by a needless
challenge from Anzur Ismailov on the edge of the area and Bader
Al Mutwa sent Uzbek keeper Ignatiy Nesterov the wrong way from
the penalty spot.
The equaliser brought the game to life and both sides had
chances to take the lead before Djeparov, who was always a
threat playing just off striker Alexander Geynrikh, struck the
winner which was deserving of a bigger audience.