The Saudis will meet defending champions Japan in Hanoi on Wednesday after goals from Yasser Al Qahtani and Ahmed Al Mousa took the three-time champions through to the last four.

The game will be a rematch of the 2000 Asian Cup final, when Japan won 1-0 in Beirut to win the title for a second time.

Al Qahtani gave the Saudis the perfect start to the game with barely three minutes on the clock when he netted from 12 yards out after Ignatiy Nesterov had parried Abdulrahman Al Qahtani's cross into his path.

Uzbekistan, though, battled for the equaliser and hit the woodwork on a total of five occasions throughout the 90 minutes.

The first of those came just two minutes after the Saudis scored, when Server Djeparov smashed his effort from the edge of the penalty area but, with Yasser Al Mosailem well beaten, the ball came back off the Saudi keeper's left upright.

Uzbekistan captain Maksim Shatskikh caused problems throughout the opening period and 19 minutes into the game he tried his luck from distance, only for Walid Abdrabh Jahdali to deflect the shot wide via the post.

But in the 28th minute Rauf Inileyev's thought they had finally pulled level. Djeparov's free kick was saved by Al Mosailem, only for Shatskikh to fire high into the net on the rebound.

However, the assistant referee ruled the effort out for offside although television replays later showed the Dynamo Kiev striker was onside.

The Uzbeks continued their quest for the equaliser within four minutes of the restart when Djeparov's cross was met by Ibragimov, but his downward header came back off the woodwork.

But as they became increasingly desperate, the gaps started to appear at the back. Inileyev's side had two warnings - from Taisser Al Jassam and Al Mousa - in the minutes before the Saudis doubled their advantage.

Al Mousa started and finished the move, laying the ball off to Khaled Aziz, who found Yasser Al Qahtani and his perfect pass split the Uzbek defence and Al Mousa finished in style with 15 minutes to go.

Solomin, however, finally found the back of the net for the Uzbeks six minutes later when he bundled the ball over the line and Geynrikh thought he had done enough to take the game into extra-time only for his right-foot shot to come back off the frame of the goal.