As part of the fine-tune for this tournament, Japan travelled to Tashkent in April and played three matches and could only manage a draw and got defeated twice from the same bunch of Uzbek players whom they will be taking on at the PAS Stadium in the final. In addition, Uzbekistan defeated Japan in an invitation tournament in Baku as well.

“Friendly matches are different ball-game, though it would certainly help motivating players when you are preparing for the match, it’s totally different in competitive tournament, those friendly wins won’t count tomorrow at all,” Nuraliyev, a former defender with Pakhtakor, said in the pre-final press conference.

“We all know how good the Japanese side is, they are fast, coordinated and can cause problem in fraction of second so it is not going to be an easy day at the office on Saturday. “But if you are asking me about our preparation, it’s as usual like how we prepare ourselves when we have matches coming in,” he said.

Nuraliyev, who also worked as an academy coach of Pakhtakor Tashkent, has a bitter memory of the final match they played in 2010 edition and he is determined to avoid that moment on Saturday.

“I still remember that match, we were down to 10-men and DPR Korea scored late goals so there is an element of dream for us in this competition, it would be a huge achievement for us (the squad) and the whole nation if we manage to win Saturday’s final.”