Uzbekistan have qualified for their first World Cup after drawing with the United Arab Emirates on Thursday.
They become the eighth team to secure their place at the expanded 48-team tournament in United States, Canada and Mexico in 2025.
The three hosts have qualified automatically, while Uzbekistan join Japan, New Zealand, Iran and Argentina to have earned their spot.
They could be joined later on Thursday by Jordan, also bidding to qualify for the first time, and South Korea.
Ranked 57th in the world and, with a population of 36 million, Uzbekistan played their first match as a sovereign nation in June 1992 after leaving the Soviet Union, and were accepted by world governing body Fifa two years later.
The closest Uzbekistan came previously to qualifying was during a controversial campaign in 2006, when they were in a two-legged playoff against Bahrain to determine who would be the Asian Football Confederation’s representative to face Concacaf’s Trinidad and Tobago. The winner of that match would then qualify for the finals in Germany.
Uzbekistan won the first leg 1-0, but a refereeing error led to Fifa ordering the match be played again, and they ultimately lost out on away goals.
The Uzbeks, however, have qualified for every Asian Cup finals since 1996 and progressed to the knockout phase in each appearance since 2004, including a run to the semi-finals in 2011 and the quarter-finals last year.
So how does World Cup qualifying work?
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