The 22-year-old is Uzbekistan’s new pin-up boy after his hat-trick against Qatar last Saturday revived their World Cup fortunes - or, at least, could see them figuring in the Asian playoffs if they finish third in the group before Bahrain and Qatar.

Farhod is very powerful in the air - all three goals against Qatar came from headers. He’s unknown to the Socceroos and didn’t play in the first qualifier in Tashkent last September.

It was only in the fourth match against Bahrain that Uzbekistan coach Mirdjalal Kasimov introduced Farhod for this part of the campaign.

However, Socceroos boss Pim Verbeek knows plenty about the opposition and says the Uzbekistan have some players with special quality - but that young Farhod is the real X-factor.

Verbeek no doubt would have been studying the latest Uzbek DVD. One of the big blows for Uzbekistan is the loss of captain Maksim Shatskikh, who fell ill in the game against Qatar and didn’t travel to Australia.

But team manager Vadim Abramov, who sat in at Tuesday’s press conference because coach Kasimov was feeling ill, is confident the side will give a very good account of themselves even without the skipper.

He felt the side had little hope of filling one of the top two spots (Japan and Australia hold down those positions) and they had to focus on securing a third-place playoff spot.

He admitted they would be happy to take a point home but said a loss would be very hard to take.

"It wouldn’t be a disaster for us but it would be very unpleasant. It’s a long way to come to Australia," he said.