themselves with China, the UAE, Oman and Qatar. The Uzbeks were unable to make any major breakthrough in the second round, losing twice to the Emirates, two away defeats toward China and Oman and an away draw to Qatar confirmed Uzbekistan's failure to qualify, despite a late win over already qualified China in the final match. 2004 AFC Asian Cup Uzbekistan failed to make further impact on the continental stage until they reached the last eight of the 2004 Asian Cup, topping their group after winning all matches, where they were beaten by Bahrain after a penalty shoot-out. 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification That performance was followed by a victory over Iraq in the second qualifying round for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, with goals from Maksim Shatskikh and Alexander Geynrikh sending them through to the last eight. They were knocked out in the final stage of the Asian qualification to the 2006 World Cup after losing on the away goals rule to Bahrain. The result was subject to controversy as actually three games were played; the first, a 1–0 win for Uzbekistan, was wiped out after FIFA declared the result void after a mistake by Toshimitsu Yoshida, a Japanese referee. The replay ended 1–1, and after the return finished 0–0, Uzbekistan were eliminated. 2007 AFC Asian Cup In the 2007 Asian Cup, Uzbekistan was able to get past the group stage by beating Malaysia 5–0 and China PR 3–0. However, Uzbekistan was knocked out of the tournament in the quarter-finals by losing to Saudi Arabia 2–1. 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification After having three foreign coaches (German Hans-Jürgen Gede, Englishman Bob Houghton and Russian Valeri Nepomniachi) in three years, Uzbekistan turned to former Uzbekistan Olympic team coach Rauf Inileev. During qualification for the 2010 World Cup, Uzbekistan advanced to the fourth round of the Asian qualifiers after winning their first four matches, but finished last in Group A of the final round behind favorites Australia, Japan, Bahrain and Qatar, with four points from eight matches. 2011 AFC Asian Cup Four years later, in the 2011 Asian Cup, Uzbekistan ended in fourth place, their best result in the tournament so far. After getting past the group stage and quarter-finals, the Uzbek team lost what it might have been their first Asian Cup final when Australia thrashed the team 0–6 in their semi-final game. Some days later, they were defeated