KUALA LUMPUR: Pahang's AFC Cup campaign is on the verge of imploding after crashing to a 4-0 defeat against Istiklol in the first leg of their quarter-final tie in Dushanbe on Wednesday.
The Tajik league leaders, who have won 11 and drawn one of their 12 domestic matches, ran riot at the Pamir Stadium to put one foot in the semi-finals and hand Pahang their heaviest in two years.
Pahang had barely time to recover from a painful 3-1 defeat to Terengganu in their final Super League match on Saturday, which cost them the title, before beginning the long journey to Tajikistan.
With only 15 fit players to choose from, Pahang coach Zainal Abidin Hassan's side slid to their worst reverse since a 4-0 defeat by Kelantan in the 2013 Malaysia Cup.
Striker Dickson Nwakaeme, who has scored six goals for Pahang in the competition, was among those missing from the squad and left Pahang with few outlets towards goal.
In the Nigerian's absence, Zainal deployed Matias Conti as a lone striker while packing the midfield area.
Predictably, Istiklol dominated possession and carved plenty of chances but had to wait until the 35th minute for the breakthrough.
Mehdi Chahjouyi found space inside the box on the right and the Iranian right-back drilled a low effort which eluded the diving Nasril Nourdin.
Three minutes later forward Dilshod Vasiev took advantage of disarray in the Pahang defence to make it 2-0 with a deflected strike off Zesh Rehman which wrong-footed Nasril.
Istiklol needed just six minutes after the break to add to the score as Khurshed Mahkmudov fired in from the top of the box and Vasiev grabbed his second goal of the game with a right-foot drive from the edge of the area in the 77th minute.
The return leg will be played on Sept 16 in Kuantan where Pahang will have to dig themselves out of a huge hole to overturn the deficit.