"The game was as difficult as we expected, but I'm satisfied with the result,” said Morais. “Today's score is fair for some, not for others - this is the natural law of football. We didn't lose confidence even when we were trailing 1-0.

“In the second half, the players showed very strong character. Acting accurately in two standard situations, we turned the result in our favor.

“Some of our leading players couldn't take the field for various reasons, but they were worthily replaced by the reserves. This is an expression of healthy competition and mental stability in our team."

"Nasaf are a well organised team. They also had several chances to score, but luck wasn't on their side. Football is like this: sometimes you have a day, sometimes not. Today, luck was on our side - even our usually goalless player scored. This itself is the result of collective action and labour."

It was another painful defeat for Nasaf - their fourth straight loss in the competition - as the Uzbekistan side remained rooted at the bottom of the West standings.

The inability to build on Sardorbek Bakhromov’s 43rd minute opener was keenly felt by head coach Ruzikul Berdiev, who felt that only one side grew stronger with every passing minute of the match.

“I said yesterday (on Sunday) that the match would be tough,” said Berdiev. “I also talked about our physical condition at the pre-match press conference.

“We resisted the opponents as best we could. Due to physical fatigue, we gave up the advantage in some cases. Unfortunately, we lost by conceding two goals from set-pieces.

“At that moment, there was negligence, and our players should have defended better. We will definitely analyse this.”