Both sides traded shots in the opening minutes with Chinese Taipei’s Lai Yu-chi effort from outside the box went straight at Uzbekistan custodian Fotima Bakhriddinova, while Zarina Mamatkarinova’s free-kick was well caught by Liu Yingchia.

Liu Yu-chiao’s pace took her past her marker in the 15th minute as she drove in-field from the right but in the end, chose to shoot from an acute angle and only found the side netting as her teammates waited for a pass in the middle.

The hosts, on their part, were focused on attacking from Chinese Taipei’s left with two chances created from that area of the pitch, Mamatkarinova’s cross cum shot almost crept into the net from the back post then Asalkhon Amijonova’s cross was just missed by Leyla Rustullaeva.

Chinese Taipei nearly found the lead just before half time when Uzbekistan failed to clear from a free-kick situation and the ball fell into the path of Li Yi-wen who, however, saw her powerful shot from inside the box sail over the bar.

The breakthrough for Chinese Taipei came five minutes into the second half with He Jia-shiuan pouncing on a weak clearance by the Uzbek defence to unleash a shot into the far bottom corner beyond Bakhriddinova.

The East Asian side had the opportunity to double their lead five minutes later when Lai Yu-chi threaded a perfect through pass for Liu but this time Bakhriddinova produced a brilliant stop to keep her side in the game.

Uzbekistan pushed for the equaliser but found Chinese Taipei’s defence hard to break with Rustullaeva’s long range effort in the 80th minute the only time Liu Ying-chia was required to produce a save.

It was Chinese Taipei who struck again in stoppage time with substitute Chen sealing the points when her shot from outside the box found its way into the bottom corner.

Chinese Taipei will hope to carry their winning momentum into their next game against Korea Republic while Uzbekistan will face Australia, with both matches to be played on Wednesday.