Uzbekistan became the first side to reach the Asian Cup quarterfinals when it 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 the space afforded to him 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 its second win of the tournament and left Kuwait on the brink of an early exit.
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.
Deflected goal
Uzbekistan 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 teammate Azizbek Haydarov.
The 32-year-old struck a curling right-foot effort which struck the back of a ducking Haydarov, who was making a nuisance of himself in the defensive wall, which diverted the ball past a befuddled Al Taher.
Hamad Nayef 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.
Qatar stuns China
In the second match of the day, host Qatar defeated China thanks to a glorious brace from Yusef Ahmed.
At a near-capacity Khalifa Stadium, Ahmed struck a wonder goal on 27 minutes to put his side in front, cleverly controlling a high ball before volleying it spectacularly into the top-left corner.
With an expectant nation watching, the 22-year-old doubled Qatar's lead on the stroke of half-time.
The results:
Group A: Uzbekistan 2 (Haydarov 41, Djeparov 65) bt Kuwait 1 (Al Mutwa 49-pen); Qatar 2 (Yusef Ahmed 27, 45) bt China 0. — Agencies
