DOHA, QATAR -- As he prepares to lead the Asian Cup's Cinderella team into their first-ever knockout fixture, Tajikistan coach Petar Šegrt insists his side will be nine-and-a-half million strong when it takes the field against the United Arab Emirates on Sunday evening.
Tajikistan qualified for the round of 16 on a dramatic final day of Group A action, winning 2-1 against Lebanon thanks to a 92nd-minute strike from Nuriddin Khamrokulov to pip China, who lost 1-0 to Qatar, to second-place.
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It continued the remarkable run for a nation competing in their first major international tournament since it won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, where football competes with the likes of wrestling and volleyball, as well as traditional sports buzkashi and chavgonbozi, equestrian sports, and gushtingiri, a type of wrestling, for attention and resources.
"Nine and a half million people scored [Khamrokulov's] goal," Šegrt said in his Saturday news conference. "Not one. Everybody, the ambitions of all Tajikistan people were for this goal.
"It is not only one, we are all together. And this is a reason why I say never one player. I never focus on one player, I only focus on teamwork.
"Believe me, here there are maybe 26 players and 15 staff members. But in Tajikistan, 9.5 million were scoring this goal together."
Šegrt added his team are aware of the size of the challenge that awaits them in the next round.
"We know [the UAE] is a good team and normally they must be better than us," he said. "We know that. "But on the field, we will love and dream and celebrate, I hope, after the game again. And if not, I will be the first to give UAE my hand in congratulations.
"But for 90 minutes we will fight, and also give everything and when I smile, I smile because I still love."
Semifinalists in 2019, the UAE will enter tomorrow evening's game heavily favoured to end the Tajiki fairytale.
Coach Paulo Bento, who led South Korea to the knockout stages of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, preached that his side cannot overlook their foes.
"If we think that because they are in the competition for the first time it's a team that has less possibility to win the game than us, we are making a big mistake," he said.
"We should have all the respect for this team, for the way that they play, for what they've achieved in their first participation they've had."