Uzbekistan had been the favourites going into the Group D match but Palestine made full use of home ground advantage to secure a vital three points.

It was a day of high quality action as 32 of the 40 teams involved in this phase of the Asian Qualifiers got their campaigns underway.

The teams now have a four-day break before Matchday 2 on Tuesday, which will see Australia, China PR, Islamic Republic of Iran, Japan, Korea Republic and Saudi Arabia kicking off their campaigns.

Syria had come into the Group A tie after a difficult 2019 WAFF Championship and the Philippines had been confident of taking the three points in a meeting between two teams who had been part of the cast at the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 earlier this year.

Instead, it was the West Asians who took full points as they recovered from going behind in the sixth minute to power past the Philippines.

Baha Faisal and Ahmad Sameer had given the Jordanians a two-goal cushion by the halftime break on a rain-soaked pitch before Weh Chih-hao’s strike for Chinese Taipei ensured a nervous final nine minutes plus stoppage time before Jordan confirmed their opening win in Group B.

Heavy rain over the preceding two days made the pitch at the Taipei Municipal Stadium a challenge for both sides, but Borkelmans’ side brushed those difficulties aside to take a two-goal lead into the half-time break.

After taking just one point from eight matches at the same stage of qualifying four years ago, Usmon Toshev’s side got the resulted play merited thanks to an Alisher Dzhalilov strike just before half-time

Their win creates an unlikely top of the table clash against Mongolia on Tuesday, while a misfiring Kyrgyz Republic have until October 10 to iron out their problems ahead of their next match against Myanmar.

In an ASEAN derby which saw Indonesia lead twice, Malaysia came to life in the second half and their determination paid off with Sumareh scoring in the sixth minute of added time.

Reigning regional champions Vietnam and a Thai side in their first match under head coach Akira Nishino both had their moments in Pathum Thani, but neither managed to find the breakthrough required to make a winning start to their campaign.