The Tajik national team opened the scoring through Fahdat Hanunov after half an hour, before the UAE equalized in the last breath through Khalifa Al Hammadi (90+5) to force an extension.
In the penalty shootout, Caio Canedo missed for the UAE, while Tajikistan scored its five kicks.
Tajikistan will meet in the quarter-finals on February 2, the winner of the Iraq-Jordan match scheduled for Monday.
Tajikistan tied 0-0 in its first match against China, then lost to Qatar, the defending champion, 0-1, before beating Lebanon 2-1 and clinching the ticket to qualify for the 16th final. As for the UAE, it wanted to continue the journey and reach the semi-finals for the third time in a row.
The UAE squad was again devoid of the all-time top scorer, Ali Mabkhout, after he missed the three matches in the first round due to technical reasons from Portuguese coach Paulo Bento, who brought back Fabio Lima and Caio Canedo, after keeping them out of the match against Iran at the end of the group stage.
For his part, Tajikistan coach Petar Šegert of Croatia made one change to the squad that played against Lebanon at the end of the groups, by introducing striker Shahrom Samiev in place of Rustam Sairov.
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