With talisman and captain Eldor Shomurodov missing the competition through injury, Uzbekistan were expected to struggle to find goals in Qatar 2023, but head coach Sereko Katanec’s side were able to advance from Group B unbeaten, with four goals scored by four different players.

The Round of 16 sees the White Wolves taking on Thailand at Al Janoub Stadium on Tuesday, opponents who are yet to concede in the tournament, beating Kyrgyz Republic 2-0 and drawing 0-0 against both Oman and Saudi Arabia to finish second in Group F.

“The competition is now entering a very interesting phase and I want to say congratulations to all qualified teams,” said Xamrobekov.

“We are going to play against a completely disciplined team. Thailand are a strong team who have conceded no goals, so it will not be easy. For our three games so far, we played without strikers, but we managed to find different types of solutions based on our playing style.

“Part of football is to play under different conditions, but that will apply to both teams so it will not be an issue. The team that is more organised will get the result. We have some players who are working on recovering from their injuries and hopefully that can help us in the next games.”

Uzbekistan’s southeastern neighbours Tajikistan stunned the UAE on Sunday to advance to the quarter-finals, and Xamrobekov believes there are lessons for his side to learn from that result.

“Yesterday’s game showed anything is possible, a theoretically weaker team with strong will and a good performance can beat a stronger opponent. Before the game, many people thought the UAE were the favourites to win, but Tajikistan were able to win it. Let me take the chance to say congratulations to them, but also that teaches us that we need to take every opponent seriously and give our best if we want to go far.”