Photos: Donat Iskanderoff
Words: Tom Reed
The beeping of car horns provided a late-night chorus in Tashkent as Uzbekistan cemented qualification for the World Cup for the first time in their history.
However, it was not only supporters of the White Wolves honking about their team becoming the first-ever Central Asian nation to attend the global football showpiece.
Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev rolled out 40 BYD electric cars onto the pitch after the 3-0 win over Qatar and gifted each player one of the electric motors worth $50,000.
Timur Kapadze’s side had already qualified for the FIFA World Cup ’26 via a draw in the UAE but doubled down with a free-flowing 3-0 victory over Qatar at the Milliy Stadium.
The nature of the win gives hope that Uzbekistan will not be heading over the Atlantic to make up the numbers, putting in a performance of real counter-attacking verve.
Azizbek Turgunboev opened the scoring in Tashkent vs Qatar with an absolute thumper of a left-footed drive on 28 minutes.
Uzbekistan showed neat first touches and intuitive passing but had to wait until four minutes before full-time to turn the screw on the visitors from the Arabian peninsula.
AS Roma’s Eldor Shomurodov put Uzbekistan two up via a superb right-foot take and left-foot finish, following a classic diagonal through-ball.
Then, Igor Sergeev of local club Pakhtahor sealed the momentous win with a well-placed header just before full-time.
All roads lead to the USA, Canada and Mexico in 2026, and luckily, Uzbekistan has new wheels to get there. Or at least to the airport.
