Tajikistan's FC Istiklol claim a surprise 1-0 win over FC Lokomotiv in Tashkent

FC Lokomotiv received a 1-0 defeat to Tajikistan’s FC Istiklol in AFC Champions League Preliminary Round 2 on Tuesday.

Tajikistan’s reigning player of the year, Dzhalilov lived up to his billing with a swerving strike just before the hour mark, taking the 2015 AFC Cup runners-up a step closer to their first-ever group stage appearance in the continent’s top club competition.

Lokomotiv had 70 percent possession in the opening 45 minutes, but it was the visitors who took the ascendancy after the break, with Alisher Dzhalilov’s swerving 35-yard effort wrong-footing veteran goalkeeper Ignatiy Nesterov and finding the back of the net.

The hosts tried desperately to keep their campaign alive, but a deflected header from defender Kakhi Makharadze was the closest they came to a late equaliser, as Mubin Ergashev’s side celebrated a major breakthrough on the continental stage.