Uzbekistan flirting with Cup history

After flirting with becoming an Asian soccer power for much of the past 25 years, Uzbekistan could finally clinch a place at the sport's top table over the next two weeks.

Although its path is still by no means straightforward, victories in its remaining qualifiers against China and South Korea would secure the landlocked Central Asian nation of 30 million people a World Cup finals debut.

A place in December's draw in Moscow would be particularly poignant for a country that only emerged from the Soviet Union in 1991 and where Russian is still widely spoken.