The Uzbek side needed a win at the Ali Mohsen Al Muraisi Stadium to guarantee their place in the last 16 and a hat-trick by Alisher Halikov and an Umidjon Boqiyev brace ensured that the team from Fergana went through as Group A runners-up.

“I told the players before the game that we needed to win by a big margin in order to secure our place in the next stage and they played a good match and won by a big margin,” said the veteran coach.

“We came to Sana’a to win the game and we put in a big effort to get it.

“Today we were the better side. The players were at ease and were not affected at all by the weather conditions here.”

Al Tilal were already condemned to finish in last place but coach Sami Naash was disappointed by his team’s effort.

“The defeat today was really disappointing as we didn’t expect to lose so badly,” he said.

“We usually perform better and I was expecting us to have a good game tonight.

“The first two goals of Neftchi in the first half demoralized our players and they didn’t show what was expected from them.

“I hope that we can learn good lessons from this defeat.”

Neftchi’s win meant that Al Ahed missed out on the knockout stage and the Lebanon Cup champions played out their final game with a 1-1 draw against group winners Busaiteen of Bahrain at Sports City Stadium in Beirut.

“We didn’t have any motivation for the game because we already knew the result of the other match in the group between Neftchi and Al Tilal and the players didn’t give all their best,” said Al Ahed coach Fouad Saad.

“However, I want to thank the players for what they have done especially as they lack experience in the Asian competition and this affected us.

“I personally didn’t expect that we would be knocked out in the first round but our 2-1 defeat against Al Tilal proved costly for us.”

Busaiteen took the lead through second-half substitute Mohamed Al Ansari after 70 minutes before Al Ahed levelled the scores through Hassan Matouk nine minutes later.

“The game was not easy and the tempo of the game was really quick,” said Busaiteen coach Abdulaziz Ameen.

“Both teams showed a good performance and they had some chances to score but the result is realistic at the end of the day.

“I thought that Al Ahed would qualify for the next stage because they are a big team and they have a good coach but this is football.

“Our team gained a lot of confidence after the good start and now we are looking ahead for the next round.”