Puche’s side held the Central Asian side to a goalless draw over 120 minutes in their last eight tie, and completed the job in the shoot-out with goalkeeper Li Hao again proving to be their hero as China PR advanced to the semi-finals for the first time, with Vietnam their opponents on Tuesday.
“A very tough game for us because coming from Riyadh, we only had three days of recovery compared to Uzbekistan’s four,” said Puche. .....
AET | 🇺🇿 Uzbekistan 0️⃣-0️⃣ China PR 🇨🇳
— #AFCU23 (@afcasiancup) January 17, 2026
𝘼𝙗𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙪𝙩𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 for China PR. 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙠 for Uzbekistan. #AFCU23 | #UZBvCHN pic.twitter.com/N2Fzz9wjiN
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