After a closely fought opening 20 minutes at Uzbekistan Stadium, the home side took the lead two minutes before half-time through Rakhmatov’s third goal of the campaign.

And after the hosts came out strongly after the restart, Nodir Elibaev nudged home from close in on 31 minutes before Rakhmatov sealed the win with a minute remaining.

Uzbekistan enjoyed the better of the opening exchanges and Javlon Anorov had the first shot on target in the fourth minute, but Iraq goalkeeper Mohammed Noor tipped the effort wide.

But Iraq came back strongly and Waleed Khalid twice had sights on goal in the ensuing minutes only to see Uzbekistan goalkeeper Rustam Umarov equal to the challenge on both occasions.

Iraq again could have scored midway through the half when Rafid Hameed laid the ball to Salim Faisal, but he failed to find the target from a narrow angle.

And two minutes later the hosts came close again, but Noor pulled off an excellent save with his outstretched right leg to deny Elibaev’s goalbound effort.

Then in the 16th minute Artur Yunusov was unable to divert Rakhmatov’s curling free-kick into the back of the net from just a yard out.

But Uzbekistan finally broke the deadlock two minutes before the interval when Rakhmatov’s stunning left-footed strike from distance flew past Noor to send the vocal home support into raptures.

Uzbekistan could have doubled their lead five minutes after the restart but Elibaev’s strike went just past the left post before Anorov’s effort was deflected wide by Hussein Al Zubaidi less than two minutes later.

With the hosts growing in confidence, Farkhod Abdumavlyanov forced Noor into a save in the 28th minute and Dilshod Irsaliev’s piledriver midway through the second half was then expertly pushed wide by the Iraq custodian Noor.

But Davron Choriev then got on the end of Irsaliev’s ensuing corner and his off-target strike was turned into the back of the net by Elibaev from close range.

Iraq then used the powerplay as they pushed to pull one back, but failed to find the back of the net during an almighty goalmouth scramble two minutes from time.

And a minute later Abdumavlyanov broke forward and played in Rakhmatov, who coolly rounded goalkeeper Noor before side-footing into the back of the net to seal the win.