Going behind a goal down in meagre 13 seconds, the Uzbeks hit back with Dilshod’s brace and a goal each from captain Andrey Shlema and Carmelo Hernandez. Oceans’ Morioka Kaoru, Tomoki Yoshikawa and Rafael Henmi also found the net for the champions, the AFC said on its website.

Peruvian forward Kaoru, who have featured in all the AFC Club Futsal Championship, started from where he left in the last year’s final against Shahid Mansouri by finding the net in the 13th second of the match after a good work down to the right by Katsuthoshi.

“It’s amazing, playing your first match and going down with the referee’s starting whistle against the defending champions and hitting back to win the match is something like a fairytale,” Ardus coach Alexander Petrov told reporters after the match.

“After trailing early, we regrouped and produced one of the finest performances to get this result,” he said adding that this win would boost the confidence of the side which recorded its first win in the championship’s history.

After an early onslaught from the Japanese, Ardus came back in the match in the 16th minute when captain Shlema gathered a through ball from Dilshod and put it past Oceans’ goalie Hisamitsu Kawahara.

Oceans became adventurous in the second half which saw the Uzbeks missing out chances to take the lead in the counter attack before Yoshikawa put the Japanese ahead in the 29th minute.

The Uzbeks made full use of Oceans’ adventure by firing two goals in quick successions. It was the match’s hero Dilshod who scored his first goal following a nice one-two with Rakhmatov Dilshod to make it level at 2-2.

The turning point of the match came just a minute after Dilshod goal when Ardus’ Brazilian export Hernandez dazzled Japanese goalie Kawahara to make it 3-2.

“We had a bad second half against a physically stronger Uzbek side,” the reigning champions’ Portuguese coach Jose Amarante said.

“We started brilliantly but failed to keep the early promises on but I have no doubt on this team, we will come back strong,” he added.

Ardus virtually seal the win when Dilshod scored a lucky header in the 36th minute as the deflected ball off goalie Hisamitsu landed ideally in front of him and the Uzbek international did not miss the chance to head the ball inside an empty net from the close range.

Oceans pegged one back immediately after Dilshod’s goal but a brilliant goal keeping from Uzbekistan number one goalie Rustam Umarov kept them at bay.

“I must appreciate the effort of Umarov, he was fantastic throughout the match,” coach Petrov summed up the performance of the Ardus goalie.