Their Central Asian neighbours Uzbekistan, however, began their campaign with a facile 5-0 victory over Maldives.

Litvinenko opened the scoring for Gulbara Umatalieva’s side in the seventh minute and doubled the advantage seven minutes after Palestine’s Caro Sohgian was redcarded in the 46th minute.

Midfielder Svetlana Pokachalova made it 3-0 in the 55th minute and Litvinenko completed her hat-trick nine minutes from time. Natali Shaheen scored the only goal for the West Asians in the last minute.

Kyrgyzstan, who lost their opener to Jordan 7-1 two days before, will face Uzbekistan in their next match on May 1.

Nargiza Abdurasulova also netted three goals for Uzbekistan after Makhliyo Sarikova (7) and Komola Usmanova (14) gave them a 2-0 lead. Abdurasulova made it 3-0 from the spot in the 28th minute and scored two more in the 31st and 75th minutes.

They will now face Palestine on April 29 while Jordan will take on Maldives on the same day.