The Central Asians thrashed Iran 5-1 while Thailand got the better of Chinese Taipei 2-0.

Midfielder Kamola Riskieva scored a brace for Uzbekistan while Selime Gugueva, Fazilat Bakhromova and Lyudmila Karachik added a goal apiece. Maryam Rahimi pulled one back for Iran.

Taneekarn Dangda opened the scoring for Thailand in the seventh minute and an own goal by Chinese Taipei’s Feng Meng-Ping made it 2-0.

Uzbekistan will meet Vietnam while Iran will face Chinese Taipei on Saturday.

The second round features teams ranked 6-8 from the previous competition, along with the first-round group winners, for a total of five countries.

After a single round-robin, the top team will qualify for the tournament proper.

Top five teams from the last edition - Japan, Korea Republic, DPR Korea, China and Australia – have been given a direct entry into the Finals.

The six-team Finals will have a one-round league format to determine the champions.