The self-proclaimed "black horse" of the Asian Cup, Tajikistan insist they can once again defy the odds and gallop through to the tournament semi-finals.
Charismatic and eccentric Croatian Petar Segrt has already taken the world's No.108-ranked team to the competition's quarter-finals, including beating the United Arab Emirates on penalties in the round-of-16.
Now Jordan await at the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium on Friday, with the winners to face either Australia or South Korea in the final four in Doha.
"Everyone laughs at me but I believe in my dream. There's a 50-50 chance we will win," Segrt said on Thursday.
"The people from Qatar told me we are the black horse but I like this - a black horse is a strong, powerful, good face of a dream.
"We are still the black horse. We will try to run as far as possible.
"Everyone was laughing when we had dreams to reach the second round and quarter-finals. Now, nobody laughs.
"Maybe everybody or somebody is laughing at us going to the semi-final. After the game we'll see.
"Because I believe in this team, I believe in these fantastic players and if we lose, we must accept it, but the black horses will try to run in the semi-final."
A last-minute win over Lebanon booked Tajikistan's path to the knockouts, before they made history against the UAE.
"Every time we celebrate like a team that won the Asian Cup," Segrt said.
"Against Lebanon, we celebrated. We won against UAE and we celebrated – I'm happy that the hotel is still standing."
The success has also sparked celebrations in the nation's capital Dushanbe and a newfound interest in the team within Tajikistan.
Tajikistan's football federation has booked two planes to Doha, filled with family and supporters, to give the players a boost.
"From our first day here, maybe not everybody believed in us in our homeland," defender Tabrez Islomov said.
"Mostly, everyone was waiting for us to come home after the group stage. But we proved to everybody and to ourselves that we can make it.
"After the game against the UAE, we saw a lot of videos in the city centre of Dushanbe and all around Tajikistan. All of Tajikistan was celebrating this night.
"This kind of celebration, these kind of feelings regarding football have never been there for football in Tajikistan before. We would like to continue."
