Haider Sabbah opened the scoring for Arbil after 19 minutes, but Pakhtakor were on level terms at the break after Darko Markovic’s shot was deflected home by defender Salah Siamend.

Pakhtakor recovered from the early blow and scored four times in 21 second half minutes, while also missing a last minute penalty, to remain in the battle for the lone spot in the knockout stage after picking up a seventh point from four games.

Winless Arbil fortunately broke the deadlock as Sabbah’s powerful free-kick took a deflection off the Pakhtakor wall to deceive goalkeeper Ignatiy Nesterov.

Arbil’s Ahmed Salah saw a shot cleared off the line by Akmal Holmatov from Wisam Zaki ’s corner before Pakhtakor equalised seven minutes before the break as Markovic’s corner was turned into his own net by the unfortunate Siamend.

Luay Salah rattled the Pakhtakor crossbar seven minutes after the hour mark following good work from Dara Mohammed as the visitors came close to regaining the lead.

But midfielder Nodirbek Kuziboyev, who had only been on the pitch for ten minutes, found the top corner from the edge of the area two minutes later to hand the home side the advantage for the first time in the contest.

Pakhtakor doubled the lead four minutes later as Markovic collected a pass from Zaynitdin Tadjiyev inside the area before firing his first time shot past Arbil goalkeeper Dydar Hamed.

With nine minutes left on the watch, substitute striker Alexander Geynrikh added a spectacular fourth from Zaynitdin Tadjiyev’s cross as his bicycle kick from just inside the area left Hamed stranded.

Geynrikh should have scored a second when Pakhtakor were awarded a spot-kick in the last minute, but he was denied as Hamed dived to his left.

Pakhtakor did add a fifth in the third minute of stoppage time as Holmatov curled home a free-kick just before the final whistle.