There was no agonising failure on goal difference this time, no referee howler to cruelly deny them at the last – on June 5, with a 0-0 draw against the United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi, Uzbekistan became the first ever Central Asian country to qualify for the Fifa World Cup Football Finals.

There were scenes of untold joy across the country, seen also among the players who mobbed coach Timur Kapadze at his post-match press conference.

Uzbekistan have tried and failed to qualify for the finals seven times since the country achieved post-Soviet independence in 1991. There has been much heartbreak along the way.

Though there have been some huge regional victories, the Uzbekistan Football Association has had to invest heavily in youth development for the White Wolves to at last take that final step onto football’s biggest stage.

"We have achieved an important result after a long and difficult journey. A lot of work was done for this result, I sincerely congratulate our people," Kapadze told Uzbek online publication Zamin.

"This is not only our victory, but the victory of our entire people. Our players showed determination in every match, worked with all their might, and we achieved the result ... "

Kapadze, a former midfielder who played 119 times for Uzbekistan, took a congratulatory call from Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

"In a fierce competition against the strongest teams in Asia, you demonstrated true character, unbreakable will and professionalism," Mirziyoyev said.

A compliment was also paid by head of the press service of the Kazakh national team, Yermuhammed Maulen, who commended the Uzbek team on their historic achievement and joked that he wanted to move to Uzbekistan.

He told Zamin: “I once said it on a podcast, but for some reason we [in Kazakhstan] don’t want to admit that our football is lagging behind Uzbek football. Today is a clear proof of this. Now you can compare it for yourself: we [Kazakhstan] are losing 0:2 in a match with Belarus, and Uzbekistan is going to the World Cup. It seems that none of our players on the field now wants to score. After all, how can we endure this?! I want to move to Uzbekistan now!”

Victory must have tasted particularly sweet for Kapadze as he was part of the Uzbek team that in a playoff against Bahrain during the 2006 World Cup qualifiers thought they had scored a penalty to make it 2-0—only for the Japanese referee, saying he had seen an encroachment in the penalty area, to take away the goal and instead give Bahrain a free-kick. After the game it became clear the referee had blundered as according to the rules he should have instead ordered a penalty retake. Fifa acknowledged the technical error and ordered a replay, a replay that ended up sending Uzbekistan out of the playoffs on away goals.

The failure to make the 2014 finals also stung, with Uzbekistan losing out to South Korea who qualified because of a better goal difference by one.

The 0-0 draw with UAE was achieved with a solid defence led by Abdukodir Khusanov, who this year became the first Uzbek football player to play in the English Premier League after Manchester City signed the 21-year-old for tens of millions of euros. Khusanov arrived for the game in Abu Dhabi from his wedding.

Other stars include Roma’s Eldor Shomurodov in attack and CSKA Moscow’s Abbosbek Fayzullaev on a wing.

Uzbekistan’s football development got a boost in 2021 with the formation of Olympic Tashkent, a top-tier club reserved for young talent. Kapadze was their coach until last summer.

The 2026 World Cup finals will be an expanded 48-team affair held in stadiums across the US, Canada and Mexico.

Ranked 57th in the world, Uzbekistan played their first match as a sovereign nation in June 1992 and were accepted by Fifa two years later.

The Uzbeks have qualified for every Asian Cup finals since 1996 and have made it to the knockout phase in each appearance since 2004.