"At this stage of the competition you can't have a preference of who you get to play," said Nuraliyev ahead of Wednesday's semi-final against an Iran side that is in ominous form, having annihilated Australia 5-1 to book their place in semis and take their scoring tally for the tournament to 14 goals from four matches.

"Iran is playing very well and I am certain will get strong support from the home crowd but I am sure my team's performance in the semi-final will be much better than our performance in the quarter-final with Korea."

Uzbekistan, runners-up to DPR Korea at the last AFC U-16 Championship, have rode their luck in the 15th edition of the continental youth tournament with Nuraliyev's side needing a stoppage-time equaliser from India to advance to the last eight as Group D runners-up at the expense of China before booking their semi-final ticket (and place in the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup) via the lottery of the penalty shootout against the Koreans.

Akobir Turaev's 64th minute strike in Sunday's quarter-final at the Rah Ahan Stadium looked to have been enough to take the Uzbek's through but an equaliser from Hwang Hee-chan four minutes into stoppage time sent the tie into a penalty shootout.

Ironically it was Hwang, the tournament's leading scorer with five goals, whose penalty miss proved decisive as the Uzbeks scraped through in a match that Nuraliyev believed the Central Asians should have won more comfortably.

"We wanted to win it in regulation time and we could have buried the match if we had converted the string of chances we had in the second half but in the end we won the match.

"I am very happy that we have qualified for the World Cup but now we must focus on our next target which is to win this tournament."

Ravshanbek Khursanov is now eligible to take part in Wednesday semi-final at the PAS Stadium after the Uzbek midfielder was suspended for the game against Korea Republic following yellow cards in the group stage matches against India and Syria.