Tajikistan national football team

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The Tajikistan national football team{{efn|, Timi millii futboli Tojikiston}} represents Tajikistan in international football and is controlled by the Tajikistan Football Federation, the governing body for football in Tajikistan. Tajikistan's home ground is the Pamir Stadium in Dushanbe.

History
After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Tajikistan played its first match against Uzbekistan on 17 June 1992. It was not until 1994 that the Tajikistan National Football Federation was admitted to FIFA.

Tajikistan played its first official game on 11 April 1994 in Tashkent as part of a regional tournament. They lost that game against Kazakhstan 0–1. The first official competition the team entered was the qualifiers for the 1996 AFC Asian Cup, when it was seeded in the three-team Group 8 with Uzbekistan and Bahrain. Bahrain later withdrew, leaving Tajikistan to a play-off against their Middle Asian neighbors. Tajikistan won the first game 4–0, but were beaten in the away game 0–5 after extra time. They did not enter a World Cup qualifying competition until the 1998 FIFA World Cup edition, recording four victories in their preliminary group stage including a 5–0 triumph over Turkmenistan, and losing only to China, which placed them second behind their eastern neighbors, but out of the competition.

In a three-team qualifying section for 2002 FIFA World Cup, they had a record 16–0 win over Guam before losing 2–0 to Iran. After beating Bangladesh 4–0 on aggregate in the preliminary round of the qualifiers for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, they held 2004 AFC Asian Cup semi-finalists and eventual group winners Bahrain to a goalless draw on 31 March 2004.

First piece of silverware
Tajikistan participated in the inaugural 2006 AFC Challenge Cup held in Bangladesh being grouped with Kyrgyzstan, Macau and Pakistan. Tajikistan won Macau 4–0 and Pakistan 2–0 in the first two match before losing narrowly to neighbours Kyrgyzstan 1–0 but ended up advancing to the next round as group leaders. In the quarter-finals, Tajikistan massively win against host, Bangladesh 6–1 facing Kyrgyzstan again in the semi-finals but this time winning them 2–0 which see them advanced to the final beating Sri Lanka 4–0 in Dhaka which Tajikistan won its first international tournament.

Following Tajikistan's disappointing 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign, Mubin Ergashev and his staff were relieved of their duties.

Tajikistan were drawn into a 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification group with the Philippines, Yemen and Nepal. Following their defeat to Philippines on 27 March 2018, confirming Tajikistan's failure to qualify for the Asian Cup, manager Khakim Fuzailov resigned.

Due to the unsuccessful performance of Tajikistan in recent years, Usmon Toshev, the Uzbek coach, was appointed to reinvigorate the Tajik side. Under Usmon, Tajikistan performed well in the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying, managing to beat neighbor Kyrgyzstan 1–0 and holding the same opponent 1–1 away. However, Tajikistan suffered a heartbreaking shock 3–4 loss to minnows Myanmar away, in what was considered to be a shock given Myanmar's poor form in early games, thus putting Tajikistan into trouble. Ultimately, with the withdrawal of North Korea, Tajikistan paid dearly when its points against Mongolia were not counted, thus following Tajikistan 1–4 away loss to Japan, an Asian powerhouse, Tajikistan was officially out of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Eventually, despite Myanmar replacing Mongolia to finish bottom thus added six points for Tajikistan, the Tajiks could not reduce the deficit due to poor goal difference and thus missed out on the final round.

AFC Asian Cup debut
After failing to have a direct spot for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup, Tajikistan hired Croatian manager Petar Šegrt, and Tajikistan took part in the third round of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualification, joining with old foes Myanmar and Kyrgyzstan, as well as another Southeast Asian rival Singapore. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the third round was played only in a single round-robin group format with a centralised host, which Tajikistan's group saw its neighbour Kyrgyzstan hosting it. Tajikistan was able to take advantage from this proximity and defeated both Myanmar (4–0) and Singapore (1–0), before holding neighbour Kyrgyzstan in a goalless draw, topping the group and, after failing in five previous attempts, Tajikistan was able to qualify to its first-ever AFC Asian Cup in 2023. Tajikistan was invited to the 2022 King's Cup in Thailand held in September 2022 where Tajikistan defeated Trinidad and Tobago 2–1 and sees them advanced to the final defeating Malaysia in the penalty shootout winning their second international trophy. Tajikistan displayed in 2022 was rewarded with an invitation to the 2023 Merdeka Tournament held in October 2023. Tajikistan then participated in the tournament with an average age of 21.1 where it supposed to play against Palestine in the semi-finals but then withdraw due to the 2023 Israel–Hamas war which Tajikistan then advanced to the final meeting old foe, Malaysia in the final where Tajikistan came up as victorious defeating Malaysia 2–0.

Team image

Kit
In September 2017, Tajikistan's kit was supplied by Chinese sporting apparel company Li-Ning. In 2022, Tajikistan switched to having their kit supplied by Italian sporting apparel company Macron.

Home stadium
Tajikistan mostly play their home matches at the Pamir Stadium which currently holds 20,000 seating capacity.

Results and fixtures

The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.

2022

2023

2024

Coaching staff

Coaching history
Caretaker managers are listed in italics.

Sharif Nazarov (1992–1994)
Vladimir Ghulamhaydarov (1994–1995)
Abdulla Muradov (1996)
Zair Babayev (1997–1998)
Sharif Nazarov (1999)
Salahiddin Ghafurov (2000–2002)
Sharif Nazarov (2003)
Zair Babayev (2004)
Sharif Nazarov (2004–2006)
Mahmadjan Habibullayev (2007)
Pulad Qadirov (2008–2011)
Alimjan Rafiqov (2011–2012)
Kemal Alispahić (2012)
Nikola Kavazović (2012–2013)
Mubin Ergashev (2013)
Muhsin Muhammadiyev (2013–2015)
Mubin Ergashev (2015–2016)
Hakim Fuzaylov (2016–2018)
Alisher Tuhtayev (2018)
Usmon Toshev (2018–2021)
Mubin Ergashev (2021)
Petar Šegrt (2022–present)

Players

Current squad
The following 23 players were named in the squad for the 2023 Merdeka Tournament to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.Caps and goals updated as of 17 October 2023, after the match against .Recent call ups
The following players have been called up during the past 12 months.

INJ Withdrew due to injury
RET Retired
WTH Withdrawn

RecordsPlayers in bold are still active with Tajikistan.Most appearances

Top goalscorers

Competitive record

FIFA World Cup

AFC Asian Cup

2010 AFC Challenge Cup was used to determine qualification for the 2011 AFC Asian Cup qualification

AFC Challenge Cup

Asian GamesFootball at the Asian Games has been an under-23 tournament since 2002.CAFA Nations Cup

RCD Cup/ECO Cup record
1965 to 1974: No international team''
1993: Third Place

Other tournaments
1997 West Asian Games: Fourth Place
2005 Islamic Solidarity Games: Group Stage
2019 Intercontinental Cup (India): Runners-up
2022 King's Cup: Champions
2023 Merdeka Tournament: Champions

ELF Cup
In 2006, Tajikistan took part in the inaugural ELF Cup in Northern Cyprus. This competition was originally intended to be for teams that were not members of FIFA; however, the organisers extended invitations to both Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, who were both represented by their national futsal teams. Tajikistan failed to get past the group stage.

Head-to-head record

Honours

Continental
AFC Challenge Cup
Champions (1): 2006
Runners-up (1): 2008
Third place (1): 2010

Invitational
King's Cup
Champions (1): 2022
Merdeka Tournament
Champions (1): 2023
ECO Cup
Third place (1): 1993
Bangabandhu Cup
Runners-up (1): 2018
Hero Intercontinental Cup
Runners-up (1): 2019

Notes

References

External links
Tajikistan at AFC
Tajikistan at FIFA
Tajikistan profile at Ukrainian Football News
Official Website of Tajikistan Football

Asian national association football teams