Pakistan U-15 Beat Djibouti 4-2 to End Debut FIFA World Cup Campaign on a High

Baku, Oct 30, 2026 — Pakistan’s Under-15 football team has signed off its historic debut at the FIFA U-15 World Cup & Festival 2026 in style, coming from behind to beat Djibouti 4-2 in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Friday and end the country’s first-ever FIFA World Cup campaign on a winning note. The young Shaheens trailed 1-0 at half-time, then scored four times in a stirring second-half comeback to finish 169th overall in the inaugural tournament, with four victories and two draws from their ten matches.

It is a fitting finish to a remarkable week for a team that arrived in Baku as complete newcomers and leaves it with the best possible memory: a comeback win in their final match, sealed in added time, in front of Pakistan Football Federation president Syed Mohsen Gilani, who was present at the match and congratulated the players and team management afterwards. Pakistan’s teenagers did not win a trophy in Azerbaijan — the Tier A winner is crowned champion of the festival — but they won something arguably more valuable for Pakistani football: proof that a Pakistan team can compete, score goals and win matches on a FIFA stage.

Key facts: Pakistan 4-2 Djibouti

Down at half-time, ruthless after the break

Djibouti struck first. A cross from the right slipped into the bottom corner, and Pakistan went into the half-time break trailing 1-0 — a worrying position for a team playing its tenth match in nine days. Whatever head coach Ihsanullah Khan said at the break worked. Pakistan came out strongly after the interval, and captain and midfielder Mohammad Mustafa dragged them level in the 23rd minute, stepping up to a free-kick on the edge of the box and powering it into the net.

The momentum swung completely. With Djibouti reduced to seven players, Pakistan capitalised on the numerical advantage: Kaleemullah put the Shaheens ahead in the 32nd minute, collecting the ball at the edge of the box before calmly placing it into the bottom-right corner, and just a minute later an own goal extended the lead to 3-1. Djibouti responded almost immediately with a counterattacking goal to make it 3-2, and the closing stages were tense — Djibouti pushed forward in search of an equaliser and put Pakistan under sustained pressure as they looked to force a penalty shootout.

Pakistan held their nerve. In added time, a well-directed kick-in from Mustafa found Danish Masih at the far post, and he finished confidently to seal an emphatic 4-2 victory. It was Masih’s second goal in two days — he had also scored in the 7-1 thrashing of the Cook Islands — and it was the perfect way to close the campaign: the captain creating, a teammate finishing, a team that refused to settle for a draw.

A campaign that got better every day

Look at the full arc of Pakistan’s ten matches and the improvement is unmistakable. The Shaheens opened with three straight group defeats — 4-2 to Gambia on October 24, 1-0 to South Sudan, and 4-0 to Cyprus — and for a while it looked like a long, chastening week was ahead. Then came the turning point: 1-1 draws against Jordan and Nigeria on the Monday double-header, Pakistan’s first two points of the competition, earned the hard way.

From there, the goals flowed. Pakistan beat Tonga 6-1 on Wednesday for their first win of the tournament, ending a five-match winless run. After a goalless tier match against Nepal that Pakistan lost 4-3 on penalties, the Shaheens produced their two most emphatic performances back to back: 5-0 against the Bahamas, then 7-1 against the Cook Islands on Thursday night, with Kaleemullah scoring twice in the Cook Islands game. The Djibouti win makes it three wins in the tier phase in three days of football, and four wins in total — a return no one would have predicted after the opening three defeats.

The numbers behind the comeback are worth pausing on. Pakistan scored 18 goals in their three tier-phase wins before the final (6 against Tonga, 5 against the Bahamas, 7 against the Cook Islands), then added four more against Djibouti. Kaleemullah has been the breakout scorer of the run, with two goals against the Bahamas, two against the Cook Islands and the go-ahead goal against Djibouti. Mustafa, the captain, has been the heartbeat: a free-kick goal and the added-time assist against Djibouti, in a match his team had to win from behind.

What 169th actually means

Some readers will see “169th overall” and wonder whether that is something to celebrate. Context matters here. The FIFA U-15 World Cup & Festival 2026 is a huge event — 189 national associations are involved, and teams are split into six performance tiers, with only the Tier A winner crowned champion. Pakistan, playing at a FIFA event for the first time in the country’s history, finished in the lower tiers, but they finished winning: four victories, two draws, and a final-day comeback in front of their federation president.

For Pakistani football, which has spent years in the international wilderness, that is not a footnote. It is a foundation. A group of 14- and 15-year-olds has now played ten international matches in nine days, come back from 1-0 down in its final game, and scored goals for fun in the tier phase. The challenge now — for the PFF, for the coaches, and for everyone who followed this team in Baku — is making sure this generation does not disappear. These players need leagues, coaching and matches when they come home, so that the next Pakistan team at a FIFA event is not a debutant, but a contender.

For now, though, the Shaheens can enjoy this one. They arrived in Baku as strangers to this stage. They leave it as winners of their final match, with a comeback story that will be told every time Pakistani football needs reminding of what is possible.

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