Doha: Egor Kremits’ 86th minute header maintained Uzbekistan’s perfect start to their campaign to qualify for Russia 2018 on Tuesday evening as the defender scored the only goal of the game and condemned Qatar to their second agonising defeat in five days.
Kremits, who missed the 1-0 win over Syria on Thursday due to suspension, made an impressive return to the starting line-up as he headed Alexander Geynrikh’s free kick from the right past Oumar Barry to move Samvel Babayan’s side on to six points from their opening two games.
The result leaves the Uzbeks on top of Group A, two points clear of Korea Republic and Iran, while Qatar have yet to pick up a point having lost to the Iranians thanks to two injury time goals on Matchday 1.
“It was a good night for us as we managed to get the most important thing from the match which is the three points,” said Babayan. “We played with a lot of fighting spirit and we showed that we are capable of a good performance.
“We studied our opponents well and we knew their strengths and weaknesses although we knew that it will be very difficult. We were prepared for everything including the weather conditions and at the end of the day we got a good result.”
The Qataris made four changes from the side that was defeated in Tehran on Thursday, with goalkeeper Amine Lacomte replaced by Oumar Barry while Mohamed Musa, Ahmed Mohamed El Sayed and Akram Afif also started in place of Luiz Junior, Ali Thaimin and Pedro Correia.
Uzbekistan, wearing black armbands in memory of the country’s late president Islam Karimov, made just one change, with Azizbek Khaydarov making way for the returning Kremits.
It was the home side that made the more lively start, with Sebastian Soria almost opening the scoring in the fifth minute, only to find the side netting after Afif’s low cross from the left.
Uzbekistan’s Odil Akhmedov let fly from long range 13 minutes into the game, but his shot sailed well over the bar while at the other end the Qataris threatened, at first when Rodrigo Tabata’s shot was easily gathered by goalkeeper Barry in the 20th minute and, a minute later, when Musa headed over the bar following Soria’s cross from the left.
Geynrikh’s introduction for the disappointing Sardor Rashidov in the 59th minute swung the game in Uzbekistan’s favour, but not before Qatar fashioned out their best chance of the game.
A well flighted ball into the area found Boualem Khoukhi with time and space and he fired off an acrobatic effort that he was unfortunate to see come back off the woodwork.
With time running out it looked likely the points would be shared, but Geynrikh’s free kick from the right swung towards the far corner of the six yard box and Kremits rose highest before heading the ball into the opposite corner of the goal, giving Barry little chance.
“It is a disappointing defeat as we lost in the last minutes of the match, as was the case in the first match,” said Qatar coach Jose Daniel Carreno. “We tried our best to have a good performance but we were not lucky and we couldn't score from the chances that we created.
“We tried our best to prepare the players mentally and physically before the match but we didn’t have as a good a performance as we expected. I hope that we can make a good comeback in the next matches in the qualifiers.”
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