The Iranians established a three-goal lead at Al Rayyan Main Hall as Mohammadesmaeil Vatankhah, Mohammad Keshavarz and Morteza Azimaeidivkolaei all found the back of the net.

Ardus, though, refused to give in and after Konstantin Sviridov reduced the deficit with just over four minutes left, boss Alexander Petrov decided to pull his keeper and the extra man paid off when Jamoliddin Sharipov steered home a cross at the far post to ignite Uzbek hopes of a comeback.

However, Masoud Daneshvar netted Shahid's fourth goal soon after to set the seal on a contest that fluctuated back and forth.

“We did not have such good information about our opponents but in the end we focused on our team, we played such a tough game against them and thank god we won,” said Lak.

“I'm not totally happy with my players performance but because we did not play many friendly games, the players need to play together more and I think game by game, the team performance will get better and better.

“The first game is always hard in such a huge tournament. Also we did not show our best performance today, we will save it for the other games. We looked at some players to make them feel part of this tournament.”

Petrov, on the other hand, was left to rue what might have been.

“Unfortunately, we lost the match due to our mistakes but I would like to emphasise that the Iranian players are individually among the best in the sport. We also missed many chances,” he said.

“I was disappointed with my team's performance but we managed to score two goals and I think the match was good.”