The win also helped the Uzbeks qualify for the FIFA U-17 World Championship to be held in the Asian soil in the United Arab Emirates next year.

The Uzbeks were winning the game thanks to Akobir Turaev’s strike in the 64th minute but Hwang Hee-chan scored his fourth of the tournament and match’s equalizer with one minute remaining of the five-minute stoppage time to extend the match to the penalty shootout as the tournament regulations prefer straight penalties without any extra-time.

Nervous Hwang missed the chance during the penalty shoot-out which denied the Koreans a comeback win.

“We’re never into the match today, all of my boys were nervous and there was a clear lack of coordination at the park,” said Choi whose sides had won all the three matches of the Group C containing favourites Japan, DPR Korea and Saudi Arabia.

“Moreover, these players who started today did not have any idea of this pitch as we played our first two matches at PAS Stadium and rested most of these players in our match against Saudi Arabia so it was first time in the tournament they were playing at this pitch,” he added.

“We were well prepared, fresh and confident but boys got nervous from the very start of the match and never recovered, even in the penalty shoot-out.”

Choi’s counterpart Dilshod Nuraliyev promised much more to come from the Uzbeks with the progression of the tournament.

“People wrote us off after the group stages but we did not play bad either in the group stages as the chances were always there to convert,” he analyzed Uzbekistan’s performance in the competition. “During those matches, we were not utilizing our chances but today we utilized though I had never thought that this match would go to penalty shootout.

“We wanted to win it in regulation time and we could have buried the match in those strings of second half chances but after all we won the match and I am very happy for the qualifications in the FIFA U-17 World Cup but our immediate target is to win this tournament,” he added.

Uzbekistan will take on Iran in the semi-final as the hosts thrashed Australia 5-1 in another quarter-final later on Sunday.