The victory of Anatoliy Demyanenko’s players was a tough one. After taking the lead with Lutfulla Turaev scoring on the 13^th minute, the Karshi players lost possession for a while in the second half and conceded two goals. However, Maksud Karimov equalized pretty quick. And two minutes before the final whistle Turkmen footballer of Nasaf Artur Gevorkyan scored the winner. After the match Demyanenko admitted: “Al Tilal is a strong team, they played strong and made put us in a bit of trouble...”

Shurtan, who unsuccessfully started the AFC Cup, proved in Gusar that they have learned their lesson. Playing in snow, the home team defeated the Yemeni Al Sakr - 7:2, thereby reversing the negative goal difference to plus and made an excellent birthday present for coach Edgar Gess. Vadim Afonin, and Shakhboz Erkinov scored two goals each, and other scorers for the home team were Predrag Vujovic, Igor Taran and Laziz Ubaydullayev.

“I am glad that the players were able to recover from the recent failures,” Gess noted. “Now we have a month to prepare for the next game with the current owner of the trophy Syrian Al-Ittihad. I hope we will be able to use this time well.”

The fans of Tashkent Bunyodkor were optimistic about the swallows’ first home match in the AFC Champions League: in the last two seasons Uzbekistan champion also played the first home match in the Asian club tournament  against the Saudi Al-Ittikhad, and every time took 3 points. However, now Mirjalol Kasimov a team with few stars and lack of team play. And it was the latter circumstance denied the Tashkent club to please their fans: they were attacking a lot during the match, but could not score a single goal. And Osama Al Harbi’s goal on 34^th minute meant three points for the away team...

Pakhtakor were last to play their second match in Qatar against Al-Sadd, who passed qualifications to play in the Champions League. This match ended with a 2:1 win of the home team.