After an uneventful first half Al Gharafa raced to a two-goal lead after the break with Younis Mahmoud and Araujo scoring before Pakhtakor battled back as Asror Alikulov struck Farhod Tadjiyev equalised late on to secure a share of the spoils.

Both sides were reduced to ten men following the dismissals of Pakhtakor’s Komollddin Tadjiev and Al Gharafa’s Mohammed Eissa but it was the referee’s decision not to award fouls at the Uzbek’s goals that enraged Marcos Paqueta.

"They (Pakhtakor players) used force to score their two goals," said the former Saudi Arabia coach.

"I can assure you that the second goal was illegal. That player used his body to score.

"We had played an excellent first half. Pakhtakor played well but we were much better than them in the first 45 minutes.

"We couldn’t contain them in the second half because we made a lot of mistakes. You can’t win if you commit so many mistakes like we did. Also, I could not field my full strength side because of many injuries to my players.

"But this is a very tough group; there are no easy matches."

Pakhtakor coach Ravshan Khaydarov, meanwhile, was delighted with his side’s fighting spirit but insisted he is taking things one game at a time as his side battle for a place in the quarter-finals.

"We played really well in the second half," he said. "We were not that impressive in the first half, but we went on all out attack in the second half because of those two goals (by Al Gharafa).

"We controlled the ball much better after their goals and we managed to have the momentum with us throughout the second half.

"Right now we are not looking at how many points we have from two matches so far. We are playing well and looking towards our next match only.

"We will look at the points later on. I think all the four teams in our group are of equal standard. It is a very tough group and we have to take one match at a time."