Needing a win to progress, the Uzbeks left it late as goals by Maksim Shatskikh, Timur Kapadze and Alexander Geynrikh in the final 18 minutes sent them through to a last eight clash against Saudi Arabia in Jakarta on Sunday.

Inileyev claimed the success of his side boiled down to their game plan.

"I discussed the game with the players beforehand and we decided that we should play with caution in the first half and try to get a feel for our opponents," he explained.

"We then worked out how to play against China in the second half and we played according to our strategy.

"We were feeling okay physically and we played a lot better in the second half. In football, there may be minor things that can affect the game and we knew that China would get more tired in the second half because they had a day's less rest."

However, Inileyev felt the final score did not tell the whole story of what was a competitive game.

"It was a very interesting game today although the result may not have been a fair reflection on what took place," he said.

"China are a very good team but I think we were very lucky to get our goals and win the game.

"We knew we had to win to progress so we just tried to attack and score goals and fortunately we made the right substitutions at the right time."

Meanwhile, China coach Zhu Guanghu was reluctant to discuss his future plans after China failed to reach the knockout stage of the Asian Cup since 1980.

"I will not be leaving football," said Zhu, who arrived several minutes late for the post-match press conference due to concerns over striker Han Peng, who had to be rushed to hospital with a head injury suffered in the dying minutes of the game.

"Our performance at the Asian Cup will be evaluated when we get back home and we will try to see what we can learn from our participation here.

"I'm very, very sorry that we failed to reach the knockout stage but today we had some critical problems with several key players missing or suspended.

"Of course, I am the one responsible for the result and I am very sorry for the fans but I hope that in the future, the players can learn from this," he concluded.