Uzbekistan fell behind in the 33rd minute when Ahmed Khalil fired home a free-kick but they levelled the scores four minutes after the hour mark through Kenja Turaev.

However, Khalil broke the Uzbekistan players’ hearts when he scored his second goal of the night after 72 minutes.

"Our first-team players were really tired after playing in all of the matches and this really affected them," said Ubaydullaev.

"Some 12 or 13 players were tired and it was difficult for them to play tonight under this pressure.

"We had a heavy schedule in the tournament and it was difficult to recover. Our players were not physically good tonight and this was clear in the game as it was hard for them to run throughout the match.”

Ubayadullaev was, however, gracious in defeat and commended UAE for their part in what he described as a ’beautiful’ game.

"I want to congratulate UAE for their win and for the match as both teams played beautiful football," he added.

"Both teams were looking for a win but it was not for us.

"We didn’t play defensive football today as many would say but we tried our best to catch our opponents on the counter attack. We controlled the game after conceding the goal but we couldn’t equalise early enough.

"We conceded the early goal after a defensive mistake. It was natural for us to dominate the game after conceding this goal as this has to do with the psychology of the players.

“We tried to get back into the game and we did manage to level the scores. However, we conceded a quick goal just eight minutes after equalising and this affected the morale of the players.

"We had some problems in attack as our forwards were unable to score from the chances they had in the game. I believe that they were not fully fit before the game and that was one of our problems."