Thailand, aware of their opponents’ capabilities, pushed hard from the first blow of the referee’s whistle and took the lead just 45 seconds into the match through Waragon Thongbai, who finished a brilliant pass from skipper Thanarin Thumsen.

Japan, however, were unfazed and found the equaliser five minutes later when the Thai backline failed to clear Yamauchi Kakeru’s effort from outside the box, and Araki Ryotaro latched onto the loose ball and hit it home.

Ryotaro turned provider two minutes later when he easily beat the offside trap thanks to Kakeru’s through pass, setting up a one-on-one with Thai ‘keeper Anuchid Taweesri but instead of making an attempt, he relayed the ball to the surging Kondo Kuraba to slide the ball into an unguarded goalmouth for the lead.

Malaysia, who are out to shine on home soil, wasted no time in piling on the pressure and came close to opening the scoring as early as the third minute when Muhammad Firdaus Ramli’s cross found Luqman Hakim Shamsudin up front but his shot flew over the crossbar.

Seven minutes later, Muhammad Najmudin Akmal headed the ball in from a corner but to Tajikistan’s relief, he was ruled offside.

Najmudin and Luqman were Malaysia’s dynamic duo and at the half-hour mark, an exchange of passes between the two led to Luqman sweeping the ball home from close range past Tajikistan goalkeeper Mukhriddin Khasanov.

Two minutes later, Luqman broke through the Central Asians’ defence with his sight on goal but was brought down in the box by Khasanov. Najmuddin converted from the spot.

A boosted Malaysia continued to dominate and in the 42nd minute, Muhamad Umar Hakeem Suhar sent a brilliant through pass that found Luqman and the No.10 forward unleashed a right-footed strike to make it 3-0 going into the break.

The group’s first match at the MBPJ Stadium will be an all-West Asian affair as Oman take on Yemen, and head coach Magdy Sayed Shalaby believes that his boys have put in the needed hard work in the recent months.

“We participated in the 2018 WAFF U-16 Championship last month, and played against teams like Japan, India, Jordan and Iraq. It was a good tournament where we learned a lot.

“We have seen some matches of Oman, and we hope to play better than them in their opener.

“But right now, the players are eager to make the people of Yemen happy.”

The head coaches of the four teams came face to face at the pre-match press conference on Thursday, with all admitting that their teams were confident going into the Championship.

On top of Continental glory, four spots are available to the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup Peru, which the teams are all eyeing.