Qatar recorded its biggest ever victory in international football on Thursday, thrashing Bhutan 15-0 in an AFC Group C World Cup qualifier match in Doha.

The result smashed Qatar's previous high of 8-0, which they had recorded against both Afghanistan and Lebanon in the 1980s.

The victory also maintained their 100 percent start to their World Cup campaign after two matches and pushed Qatar into second place in Group C behind Hong Kong, who they play in a crucial fixture in the former British colony next Tuesday.

Forwards Mohammed Muntari and Ali Asad scored hat-tricks with others chipping in including right back Mohammed Musa who bagged two goals.

Qatar could even afford to miss a soft penalty awarded in the 62nd minute and several easy chances.

Given the scoreline it was somewhat bizarre that Bhutan forced the first chance and corner inside seven minutes.

But that was as good as it got for the team beaten 7-0 and 6-0 in their first two games.

By the eighth minute Qatar had taken the lead through Musa after the defender, pushing forward, found himself in acres of space on the right-wing.

Bhutan's virtually non-existent left-hand side of defence was to prove fertile ground for Qatar.

The home side exploited that channel continuously and by the 28th minute were 5-0 ahead, after Musa added his second.

By that stage he had been joined on the scoresheet by Mohammed Kasola, Asad, with possibly the best goal of the evening rounding off a fine team move, and the skipper Hasan Al Haydos.

By half-time it was 8-0 and the only real question for the second half was if they could beat their scoring record.

That they duly did three minutes after the break when Mohammed Muntari finished with the Bhutan defence again nowhere to be seen.

From then it was just a question of how many goals would be scored by the home side.

Qatar reached double figures through midfielder Abdulrahman in the 56th minute.

The evening was rounded off by Boualem waltzing round a static defence to make it 15-0 with three minutes to go.

The only consolation for Bhutan was that this was not their record defeat. They were once beaten 20-0 by Kuwait.

To round off a perfect evening for Qatar, the two teams above them in the group at the start of play, Hong Kong and China, shared a 0-0 draw in Beijing earlier on Thursday.

The match, somewhat ironically given Qatar will host the World Cup finals after Russia, was watched by a crowd of 2022.

Qatar are aiming to avoid becoming the first nation since Italy in 1934 to host the World Cup without ever having played in the finals.

They won their first game 1-0 in the Maldives.