HONG KONG : Hong Kong eased to a 4-0 win over Bhutan on Thursday to put one foot in the second round of Asia’s preliminaries for the 2026 World Cup as Indonesia and Myanmar picked up convincing first leg victories over Brunei and Macau respectively.
A pair of headers from Michael Udebuluzor in the 10th and 16th minutes put Jorn Andersen’s side on their way to victory with Shinichi Chan adding the third before a 35th minute own goal by Tenzin Norbu ahead of Tuesday’s second leg in Thimphu.
“We played a good first half,” said Andersen. “I think we did many good things, we created a lot of chances, we made goals.
“Maybe we could have had more goals in the first half, we had big chances. But I really have to say I was not satisfied with the second half.”
Myanmar scored four times in the final half hour to hand Macau a 5-1 defeat in their meeting in Yangon.
Soe Moe Kyaw, Aung Kaung Mann, Nay Moe Naing and Lwin Moe Aung netted after Niki Torrao cancelled out Lwin’s 39th minute opener for Myanmar, with the teams to meet again in Macau.
Indonesia cruised to a 6-0 win over Brunei in Jakarta, where Dimas Drajad scored two minutes into stoppage time to complete his hat-trick for Shin Tae-yong’s team.
Yu Yao-hsing struck twice as Taiwan handed Timor-Leste a 4-0 defeat and Saad Uddin scored two minutes into stoppage time to earn Bangladesh a 1-1 draw with the Maldives in Male, five minutes after Hassan Nazeem had put the home side ahead.
Singapore needed first half goals from Christopher van Huizen and Jacob Mahler to earn a 2-1 win over minnows Guam, with captain Jason Cunliffe netting in the final minute to give the U.S. protectorate hope ahead of the second leg.
Nepal drew 1-1 with Laos in Kathmandu and hosts Cambodia were held to a 0-0 draw by Pakistan.
Jabar Sharza scored the only goal on the hour mark as Afghanistan earned a 1-0 win over 10-man Mongolia in Dushanbe while goals from Ahmed Maher, Nasser Mohammedoh and Abdulwasea Al Matari secured Yemen a 3-0 advantage over Sri Lanka.
The return legs will be played on Tuesday with the winners progressing to the second round, where 36 teams will be split into nine groups with the top two teams advancing to the third phase of the preliminaries.
Asia will have eight berths at the newly-expanded 48-team World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States, with a possible ninth nation qualifying via an intercontinental playoff.
Source: CNA
