After four games in the final phase of qualifiers, the Central Asians are surprisingly anchored to the bottom of the group. But even if they miss out on direct qualification, they can still make the World Cup through the play-off system - if they can work their way up to third place. While the Socceroos are resting for next week’s match at ANZ Stadium, the Uzbeks resume their campaign against Qatar in Tashkent on Saturday night, and it’s likely their fate will be determined over the next seven days.

Not helping their cause is a tight travel schedule. They leave Tashkent on a charter flight just four hours after the final whistle against Qatar, and arrive in Sydney late on Sunday night - giving them just two days to prepare. The taxing itinerary has led to suggestions the Uzbeks will bring a second-choice squad to Australia, but team spokesman Alisher Nikimbaev has scoffed at those reports, insisting coach Mirdjalal Kasimov won’t be tinkering with his selections while the World Cup dream remains alive. "Of course it’s very difficult to be confident when you are bottom of the group, but we believe we have been very unlucky so far, and maybe our luck is going to turn," Nikimbaev said. "We definitely didn’t deserve to lose in Qatar, maybe we did not deserve to lose against Australia [in Tashkent], and in our last game against Bahrain we had three or four very good chances to score. We definitely should have won that game.

"So it’s not true to say we will not be bringing our best players to Sydney. For sure, we will fight to the end. We will fight in every match, because we can still finish third. So now we are trying to make the players more confident, to make them believe they still qualify.

"We know Australia are a good team. When you have five or six players in the English Premier League, which is the best league in the world, then that makes a difference. It gives the team another level. But maybe because Australia are at home they will have to attack more, and we can have some chances. Definitely, we have nothing to lose."

But while Uzbekistan proved against the Socceroos in Tashkent that they can be formidable opponents - something Pim Verbeek has been at pains to emphasise - they do have one major complication for the return match in Sydney. Eight players - among them goalkeeper Ignatiy Nesterov, defender Ilhomjon Suyunov, and midfielders Aziz Haydarov and Timur Kapadze - are walking a suspension tightrope after picking up yellow cards earlier in the campaign, and need to avoid a further caution against Qatar. Two regulars, Anzur Ismailov and Islom Inomov, will serve suspensions on Saturday night, and will therefore be available against the Socceroos.

"We have many players on single cards, which is why we have named such a big squad [27 players] for these two games," Nikimbaev said. "Of course, we hope they will not get another card against Qatar, but we also know some players will not be able to come to Sydney."

Whether Uzbekistan’s most famous player, skipper Maksim Shatskikh, travels to Australia also remains uncertain, with Nikimbaev adding: "He is not playing with the first team at his club [Dynamo Kiev], so we don’t know about his condition. He is supposed to come [to Australia], but it depends on what happens against Qatar. Nobody is sure.