United Arab Emirates referee Ahmad Ali blew the whistle by mistake after awarding a 35th minute freekick to Uzbekistan and Igor Shkvirin headed in unchallenged the kick by Gofurov Rashidjon leading to strong protests by the Indian players. The official reacted to the genuine complaint by showing Dora the yellow card.

India, who went down 2-3 to Turkmenistan on Monday after an excellent late rally in their opening match in the group, were down by two goals five minutes into the second half when Dora, who was once again a picture of confidence with fine saves, was completely beaten in the air by substitute Rahnionkulov Shuhratlon's long ranger from over 30 yards out.

The former twice Asian Games champions lookingto regain some respect at the continental level played their hearts out and came close to scoring themselves at least five times with mercurial strikers Baichung Bhutia and IM Vijayan narrowly.

India, though suffered another setback when Dora, rushing out to thwart a goalward bound Roman Bondarenko fouled him inside the penalty area to concede a penalty six minutes from the long whistle.

The referee booked Dora for the offence and the second yellow card put him out of the march. Feroze Sharif replaced him, but Kaslmov Mirdjalal who took the kick sent the ball ballooning over the goalkeeper.

In the other matches, South Korea clinched a quarterfinal berth with a 2-1 victory over United Arab Emirates. With two victories in Group 2, South Korea are already in the final eight. The UAE are winless in two matches in the second round.

In a Group 1 match, Turkmenistan and North Korea battled to a 1-1 draw. Turkmenistan have won one match and drawn another. North Korea are hanging on with a loss and adraw.