With the win at Jar Stadium, the confident ACL Group E side will travel to Australia next to face group leaders Adelaide and to maintain their quest to reach the knockout stages of the competitions where they face a stiff challenge from 2009 ACL champions Pohang Steelers who are tied with six points with Bunyodkor.

Soliev broke the deadlock in the 41st minute and scored his second of the night one minute from time after Australian David Carney scored in the 77th minute. Metalourg’s Shakzodbek hit a consolation in the stoppage time.

The Uzbek league champions are one point behind leaders Nasaf who fired blanked against Mash’al on the same day. Nasaf is already out of ACL contentions after returning with a single point from four matches.

ACL Group B side Pakhtakor witnessed another dropped points in domestic Uzbek Pro League following their lackluster 1-1 draw against Lokomotiv in a Tashkent derby on Friday.

Despite having a clear edge to progress in the knockout stages of the continental competition, the Tashkent giants opened the domestic season relatively low as remaining unbeaten so far, they have only managed two wins from five matches in the domestic campaign.

The 2003 and 2004 ACL semifinalists looked like pulling a fighting win when they were awarded a penalty in the 52nd minute and Stanislav Andreyev fired the ball at the back of Lokomotiv net. But the home team came strong late in the match and Dilshod Djabbarov scored the leveler in the 82nd minute to rescue a point for Lokomotiv who moved to the ninth place of the table containing 14 teams.

Pakhtakor is three points adrift of leaders Al Ittihad who just need a draw in remaining two matches of ACL to progress while UAE minnows Baniyas is still having a chance to leapfrog Pakhtakor if the Uzbek giants fail to beat leaders Al Ittihad and Baniyas manage a win against pointless Qatar outfit Al Arabi on Wednesday.

In the other matches of the day, Kyzylkum played a 1-1 draw against Dinamo Samarkand. The similar scoreline was recorded in the matches between Shortan and Almalik, as well as Navbakhor and Namangan.

Andijan claimed its first victory in the season, defeating AFC Cup participant Neftchi Ferghana with the score 1-0.