RIO DE JANERIO: Malaysian pair Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying have secured - at the very least - an Olympic silver medal after they reached the badminton mixed doubles final.

The pair defeated China's Xu Chen-Ma Jin 21-12 21-19 in the semi-final match.

It took the Malaysians 45 minutes to score the historic win. It was only their third win in 10 meetings.

Peng Soon-Liu Ying will meet Indonesian pair Tontowi Ahmad-Liliyana Natsir, who defeated in China's Zhang Nan-Zhao Yunlei 21-16 21-15 in the other semi-final.

The Malaysian pair had lost to Tantowi-Lilyana in the group match previously.