The Group C clash was the visitors’ first competitive match of the year with their domestic league yet to get underway and with conditions much warmer in the UAE than they are used to, they opted to defend in numbers whilst attacking on the counter in order to preserve energy.

After soaking up plenty of pressure from Al Ain, it was from one such counter that Pakhtakor scored the winner as Artur Gevorkyan despatched a left-footed strike in the 59th minute to secure all three points.

“We knew that Al Ain had some injury problems but we also came into this game lacking in match practice and I felt we were physically and technically better and we handled the situation well,” said Radulovic (pictured).

“The Al Ain midfield was stronger. I played the 4-3-3 formation knowing they had strength in the midfield. We relied more on our defence and then on our counter-attacks.”

Despite the victory, Radulovic insists it is too early to be making any bold predictions regarding their AFC Champions League chances.

“The difference between yesterday and tonight is that we have three points,” he added.

“It is a very good start and we now hope to carry forward this confidence.

“It is always nice to win an away game, however it is still a long way.”

Al Ain coach Toninho Cerezo was not too disappointed with the performance of his side and felt the game could have gone either way.

“We played well for most of the game and came back strongly after conceding the goal. But they defended well,” said Brazilian.

Cerezo added that Pakhtakor’s tactics made things difficult for his midfielders to create opportunities for the forwards.

“They used the long ball to good effect while we relied on our short passing game," he added. “But unfortunately Shehab Ahmad and Hilal Saeed could not feed the forwards with accurate passes and that affected our game.

“Also Jorge Valdivia was closely marked by Pakhtakor’s Darko Markovic and that also did not help.”