Thailand can reach the Asian Cup quarter-finals for the first time with a victory over Uzbekistan on Tuesday at Al Janoub Stadium Park.
A 1-1 draw versus Australia was enough for the White Wolves to finish second in Group B, while the War Elephants played to a 0-0 draw with Saudi Arabia, finishing second behind them in Group F.
Srecko Katanec saw his side concede just once in their opening three games, the fewest for them in the group portion of this tournament since 2004 (0).
Making it beyond the Asian Cup group stage has been no problem for this team, but single elimination games have been a different story, with Uzbekistan losing their opening knockout fixtures in either extra time or a shootout in 2011 and 2015 respectively, failing to score in both of those encounters.
Over the past four months, they have been much tidier defensively, conceding a goal or fewer in eight of their previous nine competitive fixtures.
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