Bunyodkor (17 played, 45 points) took a huge step towards a fourth successive Uzbek championship title on Sunday when defeating arch rivals and nearest challengers Pakhtakor 2-1. The win took the league leaders a massive nine points of Pakhtakor with just nine matches to play.

With over an hour of the game played it seemed a real possibility that the earlier goalless score line in the first meeting of the two Tashkent rivals this season would be replicated.