Sergeev, who scored a brace in his side’s impressive 4-0 victory over Vietnam in their Group C opener, told www.the-afc.com that Uzbekistan will get better with each match.

“First match of any competition is usually difficult. Though we won 4-0 but I am not happy with the performance. We usually play much better than this and I am confident that in the next matches we will show our true strength,” he said.

“We defeated the same Vietnamese side by the similar scoreline and I was expecting stronger and improved rivals in this game but this was not the case,” he said while referring to their final round-robin tie during the Asean Football Federation (AFF) U-19 Tournament held in September this year in Ho Chi Minh City.

When asked about expectations back home from this team following Uzbek U-16 team’s victory in the AFC U-16 Championship in Iran recently, Sergeev said: “The victory of our U-16 team has definitely increased pressure on us. The fans are expecting the same result from us and we will work hard and try to get this trophy also back home.”