The Uzbeks got the only goal of the game after 17 minutes when skipper Sherzodbek Karimov’s free-kick was deflected into the net off Korea Republic defender Oh Jae-suk and absorbed intense pressure from their opponent to book their place in Friday’s final at Prince Mohammed bin Fahad Stadium.

However, Ubaydullaev believed that the result owed little to luck.

"I can’t say that we were merely lucky today because we had many chances to score in the game," said the Uzbek coach.

"We had a good tactical game defensively and offensively and that earned us the win.

"We knew how the Koreans would play today as we have studied their games, we watched all their matches in the competition and we also played against them before the tournament.

"It was not difficult for our defenders to deal with the Koreans as they play a very simple game. Their tactic of utilising high balls didn’t give our defenders any problems at all."

Ubaydullaev admitted that he was surprised to see his side reach the tournament final.

"To be honest, I didn’t expect before the competition that we would qualify for the final as our target was only the semi-finals.

"However, I believe in my players and I think that they had good games in the tournament.

"It doesn’t matter who will meet in the final because we will be ready for any team," he added.

"We have previously played against Australia in the tournament and we played against UAE in a friendly tournament so we know both teams."

Korea Republic coach Cho Dong-hyun was disappointed with the defeat and accepted that his side deserved not to win.

"We deserved the defeat tonight because we didn’t have a good match and we were totally lost in the game," said Cho.

"We were mentally poor and I admit that we deserve this defeat.

"We didn’t show the necessary fighting spirit in the game and the defeat spoiled our joy of qualifying for the FIFA U-20 World Cup," he added.

"We lost the game because we couldn’t deal with it in the right way."

"I don’t think that we were over confident after the 3-0 win against Japan but we were not mentally ready for the game and that’s why we lost.

"We didn’t create a lot of scoring chances today and our strikers didn’t have a chance to score."