Al Kuwait 0 Pakhtakor 1

The Uzbekistan giants claimed their opening win in the tournament this season to go top of Group B, two points ahead of Al Kuwait, who share the last spot in the pool with Saudi Arabia's Al Hilal with one point from two matches.

Kuwait had the upper hand in the opening minutes of the game and they could have opened the scoring after only 12 minutes when Bahrain midfielder Talal Yusuf whipped in a corner which had to be cleared off the line.

The tempo of the game slowed in the following minutes and the next chance came after half an hour when Pakhtakor midfielder Timur Kapadze played in a powerful free-kick which brought out a fine save from Al Kuwait goalkeeper Khaled Fadhli.

In the first minute of first half stoppage time, Al Kuwait had two chances to open the scoring through Waleed Ali but both his free-kicks were well saved by visiting keeper Ignatiy Nesterov.

The game continued in a similar vein in the second half with the home side on top.

And they almost opened the scoring 18 minutes after the restart when Yusuf's effort beat Nesterov but Islom Inomov was on hand to clear the danger.

Against the run of play Pakhtakor went in front.

Nigerian striker Uche Iheruome did well down the left before crossing for Magdeev and he headed home.

The hosts fought back in the hope of levelling the scores but they could not beat the impressive Nesterov.

The keeper did well to keep out a Faraj Laheeb header in the 71st minute and then excelled again to smother a Jarah Al Ataiqi attempt.

Kuwait's final chance came and went when Andre Valentim lashed a powerful drive over the bar.