Taif: Mukhammad Khabibullaev is focused on lifting the AFC U17 Asian Cup™ Saudi Arabia 2025 trophy come April 20 after Uzbekistan completed their Group A campaign in style by beating Saudi Arabia 3-0 on Wednesday.

Khabibullaev set up a breakaway second goal in the 62nd minute on a silver platter for Asilbek Aliev to kill off Saudi Arabia’s hopes of a comeback and the midfielder, while not wanting to assume the favourites tag, said Uzbekistan have no fear going into the knockout stage.

“We don’t bring our own personal thoughts into this tournament, only what the coaches say,” said Khabibullaev. “Every match we play, we are here to win.

“It’s not for me to say (if we are favourites) but the most important thing is that all the players are ready, we all have the right mentality and we want to be champions.”

The encounter against Saudi Arabia was a match that showcased Uzbekistan’s strength in depth as head coach Islombek Ismoilov gave five of his regulars a rest but the Central Asian side still proved to be far too strong for the hosts.

Forward Jamshidbek Rustamov was given his first start of the campaign and rewarded his coach with a brace, much to Ismoilov’s delight.

📋 Standings in Group A
🔝🇺🇿#AFCU17#UzbekistanU17 pic.twitter.com/4Ksi6S1oHD— O‘zbekiston FA (@UzbekistanFA) April 9, 2025

“We have a squad of 23 players and all the players that we bring here, we intend to give all of them opportunities,” said Ismoilov. “I’m very thankful to the players for working hard and following all our instructions. 

“Most of them are playing for the first time with the national team but all of them are doing well. As we are playing every three days, we looked to give some players who haven’t gotten many minutes the playing time and they did well.”

As for Saudi Arabia head coach Mario da Silva, the tactician felt Abdulrahman Sufyani’s penalty miss four minutes into the second half was the turning point in the game as his players’ confidence was affected.

“In matches like these against strong teams like Uzbekistan, when chances are missed, goals are conceded,” said da Silva.

“When we missed a penalty, it affected our players’ performance and gave our opponents a chance to score and enter the match strongly.

“The physical factor may have made a difference in our opponents’ favor, but I believe the mistakes we made are what led to the result we conceded.

“Despite losing today’s match, I still have great confidence in the players to achieve a positive result in the next round.”

Source: AFC