Uzbekistan virtually booked their place in the next round of Asian qualifying for the 2010 World Cup with a 9-0 first round, first leg thrashing of Taiwan in Tashkent.

The hero of the night for the Central Asians was striker Maksim Shatskikh who helped himself to five goals against a hapless visiting defence.

The Dynamo Kiev star completed his hat-trick inside the first 35 minutes and worse was to come for the visitors.

Timur Kapadze, Viktor Karpenko, Ulugbek Bakayev and Shavkat Salomov also got on the scoresheet.

Uzebkistan, who made the quarter-finals of the 2007 Asian Cup, have never appeared at the World Cup before.