Afghanistan slumped to an 11-0 defeat away to neighbours Turkmenistan as they made their World Cup debut in an Asian zone preliminary qualifier.

About 500 Afghan fans, mostly local residents, were among the crowd of 10,000 in the capital of Turkmenistan, a secretive ex-Soviet state, but they had little to cheer in the first leg.

The match was held in the bizarre surroundings of the Olympic Stadium, named Turkmenbashi or Father of the Turkmens after President-for-life Saparmurat Niyazov.

Playing under a huge portrait of Niyazov, which took up a large part of the stands, the spirited but inexperienced Afghan side crumbled after conceding two early goals.

A portrait of Niyazov flashed on the electronic scoreboard each time a goal was scored.

The Afghans were trapped in their own half for most of the match and the home fans in a stadium less than a third full were treated to hat-tricks by Begench Kuliyev and Rejep Agabayev.

Guvanch Ovekov (2), Nazar Bairamov, Omar Berdeyev and Muslim Agayev got the other goals, while Afghanistan's Basher Ahmad Sahdal was sent off after getting two yellow cards for pushing.

Afghanistan host the second leg in Kabul on Saturday with the winners on aggregate going through to the 32-team Asian preliminary World Cup qualifying competition.

"We'll win 2-0 in Kabul," Afghanistan coach Mohamed Kargar told Reuters ahead of Wednesday's match.

Afghanistan has only just started playing internationals again after a 20-year gap following years of civil war and the 1996-2001 rule of the Taliban, who outlawed sport and used the soccer stadium in Kabul for public executions.