Central Asian sides suffered defeats in friendlies played on Wednesday night with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan all losing.

Tajikistan lost to Azerbaijan 3-2, Uzbekistan were defeated by Ukraine 2-1 and Turkmenistan were at the unflattering end of a 2-1 scoreline against Lithuania.


In a high-scoring game, the Tajiks took the lead in the 20th minute through Rakhmonali Barotov but Branimir Subashic equalised just six minutes later before doubling the advantage a minute later. Komil Saidov restored parity in the 31st minute but Samir Aliyev fired the winning goal two minutes from the break.

Olexander Hladkiy (30) and Ruslan Rotan (65) put Ukraine in the driver’s seat and Alexander Geynrikh’s 90th minute goal was too little and way too late for any chance of a comeback.

It was the same story for Turkmenistan when Tomas Danilevicius (42, 47) put Lithuania 2-0 up. Artem Nikitenko (90) grabbed a consolatory goal back for the losing side.