Rashed cooly tucked home the spot-kick past goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu to send the Bahrain bench into a frenzy of celebrations.

Rashed, who plays for Bahraini Premier League side Al-Muharraq, said he’s grateful for the win and expressed gratitude to the fans who stayed to watch the team play till the very end.

Bahrain dominated the match from the start but failed to find the net going into the break at the Sharjah Stadium. But a late penalty strike from Jamal Rashed and with the United Arab Emirates-Thailand tie ending 1-1, the outcome was in Soukup’s side’s favour.

Bahrain leap-frogged Stephen Constantine’s India to claim third place on four points, confirming them as one of the best four third-placed teams who will advance to the Round of 16.

India needed just a draw from their Group A encounter to advance to the knockout rounds for the first time and as the game entered its final minutes, they appeared to have done enough, but Pronay Halder then upended Hamed Alshamsen in the penalty area and Rashed made no mistake from the spot to send India crashing out.

The defeat brought an end to a promising campaign which has seen the South Asians claim a hugely impressive 4-1 opening-day win over Thailand and then prove more than a match for the United Arab Emirates.

Ultimately, though, in the most compact group of the competition, they fell just short, finishing two points adrift of table-toppers UAE and just one behind Thailand and Bahrain, who both progressed to the next stage.

India finished at the bottom of Group A following their 1-0 defeat to Bahrain and the Englishman said it was time to call it a day.

“I’m stepping down after this game. I’ve been here for four years, my objective from day one was to qualify for the AFC Asian Cup. I’ve done that and I’m exceptionally proud of the players for everything they have given.

“I want to thank the AIFF (All India Football Federation) because the support they have given me in the last four years has been huge.”

India began their UAE 2019 campaign with a resounding 4-1 win over Thailand but suffered a 2-0 loss against United Arab Emirates on Matchday Two.

Thitiphan Puangjan scored four minutes before the half-time break to cancel out Ali Mabkhout’s seventh minute opener for Alberto Zaccheroni’s side to ensure the teams shared the points at Al Ain’s Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in their Group A clash on Monday.

That meant the UAE finished on top with Thailand second ahead of Bahrain thanks to their superior head-to-head record over the West Asians, who claimed a late win over India to also book their place in the Round of 16.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has a reach now of 122 million for this tournament, which continues to rise every day with more and more engaging with the biggest-ever Asian Cup through the official AFC social platforms.

The AFC Asian Cup Facebook (fb.com/theafcasiancup) page has seen almost 40 million people engaged while the official Instagram account (instagram.com/afcasiancup) has clocked up more than 49 million impressions on the collection of stunning images from the competition.

Video highlights are also capturing attention with more than 7.9 million views on YouTube, watching a total of 14.1 million minutes of content – and a further 1.5 million Arabic viewers have tuned in through the AFC Arabic official Twitter account (twitter.com/afcasiancup_ar).

Genki Haraguchi’s first-half penalty helped the Samurai Blue seal a narrow 1-0 win over Oman on Sunday, a result which – along with Uzbekistan’s subsequent defeat of Turkmenistan – saw Japan go through to the Round of 16.

Although happy with his side’s progress thus far, the former Sanfrecce Hiroshima boss was quick to add that there are other nations emerging who he feels also have the potential to become champions of Asia.