Coming into the tie a point behind Tajikistan in the standings, the onus was on Japan in what was a must-win game, and within the opening minute Ryoto Kai and then Ryohei Ando had already forced Tajikistan goalkeeper Firuz Berkmurodov into sprawling saves.

Tajikistan found themselves pegged in their own half as Kazuhiro Nibuya then diverted Takumi Nagasaksa’s driven cross narrowly wide before Shota Yamanaka’s speculative effort flashed the wrong side of the post.

The Central Asians did look to counter when they could, though, and Dilshod Salomov had a driving run up the court on eight minutes, but his shot did not test Guilherme Kuromoto.

The Japan custodian was tested just a minute later, though, as he flew to his left to keep out a smartly struck shot from Komron Aliev.

But eventually Japan’s pressure paid as they opened the scoring on the 11th minute.

Sora Kanazawa’s piercing pass from the left found Kentaro Ishida lurking in the area to finish smartly past Berkmurodov.

In the final five minutes of the half Nekruz Alimakhamdov went through one-on-one with Kuromoto but the ‘keeper came out on top.

Tajikistan continued where they left off after the restart and had the first action on goal with Nasratsho Ismoilov drawing another save from Kuromoto, before Yusei Arai went up the other end and unleashed a shot that hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced out.

Fayzali Sarforov kept Kuromoto on his toes with another stinging effort as Tajikistan continued to probe the Japan rearguard and they had their reward on 26 minutes.

Aliev found Samandar Rizomov on the wing, and he slipped a pass inside to Muhamadjon Sharipov who finished sharply across Kuromoto into the opposite corner of the net.

As the game entered its final five minutes both teams began to throw players forward in search of the winner with Japan using the power play, resulting in Yuta Tsutsumi hitting the cross bar with seconds remaining, but Tajikistan held on to book their quarter-final spot and in doing so create one of the biggest shocks in Asian futsal history.