Conscious of Jordan’s disciplined defence and the speed of their counter-attack, Abramov made five changes to his starting line-up from their 2-2 draw against China in their last group game and opted for a 3-5-2 formation.

Those changes worked a treat as Shavkatjon Mullajanov and Sakhob Juraev helped to anchor the defence while forward Ulugbek Bakaev, who had not played at all during the group stage, scored both of Uzbekistan’s goals.

“Our coach made the decision to change our formation and that helped us a lot in the game,” said Odil Akhmedov, who was dropped back further in central defence.

“We had seen the videos of Jordan’s games during the group stage and we knew that Jordan like to play out from defence so we tried a different formation to try to break them down.

“In the first half, we found it hard to create chances because the Jordan defence was very compact and they played very well. So at half-time, the coach told us to try to push up more in attack and so we started the second half strongly and got the goals which won us the game.”

Added Stanislav Andreev, who came on as a second-half substitute for left winger Jasur Khasanov: “The coach made some changes to the team and the formation and that helped us because Jordan didn’t expect it.

“Mullajanov played very well for us in defence and Bakaev came in for the first time in this tournament and scored two goals.”

Meanwhile, goalkeeper Ignatiy Nesterov downplayed the problem with his right hand that caused him to be replaced by Temur Juraev midway through the second half.

“I asked the coach to change me during the second half because I was still feeling a bit of pain after saving a shot by the number 21 (Ahmad Abdelhalim) in the first half. I don’t think that is a serious injury and I will see whether I can play in the semi-final on Tuesday,” he said.