Australia v Uzbekistan: Asian Cup last 16 – live!

Well, no doubt who was the better team in that half. Uzbekistan were dangerous and purposeful, the one thing perhaps missing being a great final ball or a real, clear chance on goal beyond the one Shomurodov hit straight at Ryan early on. Australia, by contrast, were stilted in possession, blunt going forwards and iffy at the back. Plenty of work for Graham Arnold to do at the break.

45 mins: Milligan feeds Mabil on the right, who has been quiet as a mouse so far, but despite having options in the box he plays a pass right back to the Australian defence. The ball comes back upfield, Rogic has the ball on the edge of the box with a shooting chance, but it’s on his right side and he isn’t confident enough to take the effort. Another attack fizzles.

43 mins: Finally a little attacking purpose from Australia, as Behich and Ikonomidis exchange passes down the left, but eventually the latter overruns things and Uzbekistan get it clear.

42 mins: Masharipov makes some more tricky moves down the left, he cuts in on his right foot but puts far too much on the cross and it sails over the heads of everyone in the box.

40 mins: …and after all that discussion, Rogic thumps it into the wall. Not great, this.

39 mins: Behich tries to make something down the left, but in the end is fouled by Khashimov. A number of Australian players gather around the ball to debate what to do with the free-kick, around 25 yards out to the left…

36 mins: More troubling signs for Australia, even if the eventual shot ends up in the stands. Shomurodov simply bullies Sainsbury down the left side of the box, he checks back and tees up Khamdamov, who blazes the left-footed effort from about 25 yards high over the bar. But the ease with which they built that attack and the time Khamdamov had to shoot should be worrying for Arnold.

35 mins: Quiet spell of the game. Rogic leads a counter-attack for Australia but after he spreads the ball left to Ikonomidis, a heavy first touch gives Khashimov the chance to put in a saving tackle, which he does.

32 mins: Maclaren gets the ball fairly deep and tries to clip a pass over the top, but it’s far too strong and gently trots out for a goal-kick.

31 mins: Australia still really struggling to get any sort of meaningful attack going. They do at least have a spell of possession, but it’s fairly sterile, lots of sideways passing around the halfway line.

28 mins: Yeesh, Uzbekistan go very, very close. Brilliant work from Masharipov, cutting in from the left, dancing past a couple of Australian defenders like they’re training cones. He squares to Sidikov, about 25 yards out, who shoots low, with some power but it skips just past the post.

25 mins: Another yellow card: Behich is the latest man to go in the book, for a very slightly late challenge on Khamdamov. Extremely harsh. Going on the opening 25 minutes, it’ll be astonishing if we end the game with 22 players on the pitch.

24 mins: Early thoughts on the emails from Clare Lawrence: “The Uzbeks have nice fluid movement between the lines in attack and a good high press. Australia need to react quicker both in attack and defence and be more creative.

“Referee is certainly card happy which doesn’t bode well for the game moving forward.”

22 mins: A ball over the top looks for Maclaren but it’s just too strong for the forward and goes through to the keeper. Australia just haven’t got going yet.

21 mins: Have I mentioned former Valencia and Inter manager Hector Cuper is in charge of Uzbekistan? Well, he is.

19 mins: And now some more rough-housing from Australia…well, sort of, but this one is pretty damaging. Rogic plays a pass to his right, just eluding the challenge of Masharipov, but in putting his foot down following the ball he stepped on his opponent’s foot. Yellow card, most look entirely baffled but it means Rogic will miss the quarter-final, should Australia make it through. Big blow, that.

17 mins: One way to deal with the threat of Shomurodov is to give him a kick, which Sainsbury does, taking his man out on the left touchline. A free-kick is given but no more, and the Uzbek forward goes down holding his back.

15 mins: No doubt who’s been the better side so far: Uzbekistan are knocking the ball around with purpose and confidence, and it might be troubling for Graham Arnold that his side have started slowly for the second game in a row. A pass through the defence by Akhmedov is cut out by Degenek, but not convincingly and it takes another go to properly propel it from danger.

12 mins: Australia take their first shot on goal: the ball falls to Behich, loping forward from left-back, on the edge of the box, but while his effort had a bit of oomph behind it, it was straight at the keeper who saves with relative ease.

10 mins: Huge chance for Uzbekistan: they win the ball strongly in midfield, then Shomorodov is set away down the left side of the box. The Australian defence just seems to melt away, leaving Mat Ryan as the last/only line of defence, but luckily for the Aussies the Brighton keeper stays big and stops a toe-punted shot. Slightly troubling how easy that was for the Uzbeks, though.

8 mins: Shukurov tries to test his goalkeeper’s stones/control by absolutely battering a pass back, but fortunately Nesterov, the man with the gloves, dealt with it rather nicely.

5 mins: Uzbekistan have a spell of patient possession, initially moving to attack but when that became untenable they calmly passed it back and started again. A long diagonal finds Masharipov on the left side of the box and his fine first touch takes him past Grant, but Sainsbury swoops in to clear up the danger.

3 mins: Milligan takes the resultant free-kick but his skimmed ball to the back post is too strong.

2 mins: A big ball up field finds Maclaren, and his knock-down eventually makes its way to Milligan, but his shot is blocked. Then Maclaren is wiped out by the nails-looking centre-back Tukhtakhujaev – no early reticence with the cards from the referee, he flashes the yellow before the end of the second minute.

1 min: We’re away. The first casualty of the game is Jackson Irvine, who goes up for a header and comes down holding his neck. Doesn’t look too serious though…

The players are out. Coldplay is on the PA. The one about the stars. No, not that one, the other one.

If you’re after one to watch from the Uzbekistan side…well, I can’t pretend to be an expert on Uzbek football, but the obvious one would seem to be Eldor Shomurodov, their 23-year-old forward. He plays for FC Rostov in Russia and, while he hasn’t pulled up many trees there, he has scored in every game at this tournament so far.

“What price on Graham Arnold’s retention as coach if the Socceroos exit early from the Asian Cup, given Alen Stajcic’ s sacking?” writes Lawrie Smith.

On the off chance you missed this, Stajcic was surprisingly removed from his position as Matildas coach last week, despite a good results record and to the widespread dismay of the players. Some details here:

A little dash of David Squires will always liven up your day: here he is on the tournament so far.

Match preview? Match preview. Here’s Stephen Ganavas with all you need to know.

Just the one change for Australia, and a pretty predictable one: Trent Sainsbury returns after a one-game suspension with Massimo Luongo dropping out, which obviously means Mark Milligan returning to midfield.

Australia

Ryan; Grant, Degenek, Sainsbury, Behich; Irvine, Rogic, Milligan; Mabil, Maclaren, Ikonomidis

Uzbekistan

Nesterov, Ismailov, Khaskimov, Zoteev, Tukhtakhujaev, Akhemdov, Khamdamov, Shukurov, Sidikov, Masharipov, Shomurodov.

The group stage is all about getting through. At the 1982 World Cup Italy drew their round robin games but scraped into the next round, and eventually won the thing. Four years ago Australia lost to South Korea, finished second in their group but progressed and lifted the title.

Their opening games this time were arguably even scrappier than that, but the point is Australia are here, in the knockout round, still alive and contending. Now that the hefty sigh of relief has been breathed, they might be able to grow a little confidence. They won their latter pair of games, the second in particular, a madcap win against a Syrian team playing with the freedom of the eliminated and a side with a manager they all liked (the previous one having been sacked a few days earlier) displaying no little skill and character.

On the face of things, you would imagine this to be…not a straightforward tie, but one Australia should win. After all, this is the holders against a side who have never progressed beyond the quarter-finals of this competition. But it still will be ticklish. Uzbekistan won their opening two games and gave Japan a good run in the last.

The hope will be, for Australia, that after a slow start they are gaining momentum. Find out exactly how much momentum shortly.

Kick-off: 1am AEDT/2pm GMT/6pm local