Bahrain, who were edged out by Trinidad & Tobago in a play-off for a spot in Germany in 2006, got their campaign for South Africa off to a roaring start with a 4-1 win over Malaysia in a first-round first-leg encounter in Manama.

The Bahrainis took only three minutes to take the lead as Nigeria-born midfielder Abdullah Fatadi opened the scoring with a powerful shot into the top-right corner of the Malaysian goal.

It was 2-0 on 15 minutes as striker Jaycee Okwunwanne received a neat pass from Mahmoud Abdulrahman before firing past Malaysian goalkeeper Syed Adney Hussein.

Bahrain should have added a third a minute before the break when Sayed Mohammed Adnan's shot came back off the woodwork and Malaysia capitalised in stoppage time at the end of the first half when substitute Mohamed Bunyamin Umar lobbed the ball past Bahraini goalkeeper Sayed Jaafar to reduce the deficit to one.

Bahrain regained control in the second half and restored their two-goal cushion through midfielder Mahmoud Abdulrahman 10 minutes after the interval before substitute Ala'a Hubail made it 4-1 from the penalty spot in the final minute.

Bahrain still have to negotiate a return match in Shah Alam next weekend but a victory in the tie would see them given a bye through the second round as one of the higher seeds in the competition.

World Cup 2002 finalists China look almost certain to advance to the third round as well after a 7-0 demolition of Myanmar at the Foshan Century Lotus Stadium in Guangdong.

Qu Bo opened the scoring after 17 minutes and Du Zhenyu added a second in the 25th minute before the floodgates opened in the second half.

Yang Lin, substitutes Liu Jian and Li Jinyu, and skipper Li Weifeng netted after the break before Qu added his second of the game 11 minutes from time.

At the MFF Football Centre in Ulaanbaatar, North Korea strolled to a comfortable 4-1 away win against Mongolia.

Pak Chol-min struck first after 14 minutes before Jong Chol-min took over, completing a hat-trick with goals in the 24th, 32nd and 78th minutes.

Odkhuu Selenge grabbed a late consolation for the Mongolians in stoppage time at the end of the match.

Qatar grabbed a slender 1-0 lead against Sri Lanka as Sebastian Quintana struck after 69 minutes in Colombo to give the visitors an advantage for the return game in Doha.

Finally, Hong Kong are also in a solid position to advance after a 3-2 win against Timor Leste in Bali.