Pakistan U-15s End FIFA Debut With 4-2 Djibouti Comeback

Pakistan's young Shaheens have signed off their first-ever FIFA tournament in style. At Pitch 3B of the Hovsan Competition Complex in Baku on Friday, October 30, the under-15 national team came from a goal down at half-time to beat Djibouti 4-2, closing a historic debut campaign at the FIFA U-15 World Cup and Festival 2026 with a comeback win. It was the team's fourth victory in ten matches across the festival, a run that ended with Pakistan placed 169th overall in the final standings.

The result mattered for more than the scoreline. Pakistan arrived in Azerbaijan as the first Pakistani team ever to play at a FIFA world event at any level, and they left with something no future team can take away from them: a winning finish, a captain's free-kick that turned a match, and a group of teenagers who now know what it takes to compete on FIFA's stage. For a football nation that has spent years on the outside of the global game, that is a foundation, not just a farewell.

How the comeback unfolded

The match began badly for Pakistan. Djibouti struck first, a ball delivered in from the right finding its way into the bottom corner, and the East African side carried that 1-0 lead into the half-time break. For a team that had already lost three group games in Baku, another afternoon of chasing the game was a real danger.

What followed after the restart was Pakistan's best half of football in the tournament. In the 23rd minute, captain and midfielder Mohammad Mustafa stepped up to a free-kick on the edge of the box and powered it into the net to make it 1-1. It was the moment the match tilted. Djibouti were soon reduced to seven players, and Pakistan made the numerical advantage count. In the 32nd minute, Kaleemullah collected the ball at the edge of the box and placed a composed finish into the bottom-right corner for 2-1. Just a minute later, an own goal stretched the lead to 3-1.

Djibouti refused to fold. A quick counterattack pulled one back to 3-2, and the closing minutes turned tense as they pushed for an equaliser that would have forced a penalty shootout. Pakistan held their nerve, defended the lead, and then killed the game in added time: a well-directed kick-in from Mustafa found Danish Masih at the far post, and he finished confidently to seal the 4-2 win.

Pakistan Football Federation president Syed Mohsen Gilani, who was present at the match, congratulated the players and the team management afterwards on a memorable campaign.

One clarification: the ninth-place match, not the Tier F title game

Some previews billed the Djibouti fixture as the Tier F final. A reading of FIFA's own match data tells a slightly different story: the Djibouti game was Pakistan's final placement match in Tier F, the ninth-place match, while the Tier F title itself went to New Zealand, who beat Ethiopia 2-1 on the same day. The distinction does not diminish Pakistan's win — it was still the last match of their festival, and still a comeback victory — but it is worth getting right, because this campaign will be the reference point for every Pakistan youth team that follows.

The numbers behind the debut

Ten matches, four wins, two draws, four defeats. That is the final ledger of Pakistan's first FIFA campaign, and the shape of it tells the story of a team that learned fast. The group stage was harsh: a 4-2 defeat to Gambia in the opener despite leading 2-0, a 1-0 loss to South Sudan, and a 4-0 defeat to Cyprus left Pakistan with only two points from five games, earned through 1-1 draws with Jordan and Nigeria. Kaleem Ullah scored in both of those draws.

The placement bracket in Tier F was a different story. Pakistan beat Tonga 6-1 for their first-ever FIFA win, drew 0-0 with Nepal before losing the shootout 4-3, then swept Bahamas 5-0 and Cook Islands 7-1 before Friday's 4-2 win over Djibouti. Four wins from five placement matches, 22 goals scored across the tier phase, and a finish that climbed all the way to 169th overall.

Phase	Opponent	Result
Group stage	Gambia	Lost 4-2
Group stage	South Sudan	Lost 1-0
Group stage	Cyprus	Lost 4-0
Group stage	Jordan	Drew 1-1
Group stage	Nigeria	Drew 1-1
Tier F	Tonga	Won 6-1
Tier F	Nepal	Drew 0-0, lost 4-3 on penalties
Tier F	Bahamas	Won 5-0
Tier F	Cook Islands	Won 7-1
Tier F	Djibouti	Won 4-2

The players who defined the campaign

Every breakthrough campaign has names that stick, and this one has several. Kaleemullah was the goalscorer-in-chief: four goals against Tonga, the winner against Djibouti, and goals in both group-stage draws. Mohammad Mustafa, the captain, produced the two decisive set-piece moments of the final match — the equalising free-kick and the kick-in that created the clincher. Danish Masih scored in both the Cook Islands rout and the Djibouti finale. Around them, players like Ameer Hamza, who opened the scoring in the very first match against Gambia, and Bakshi Hamal Khan gave the squad depth that showed up most clearly in the second week, when Pakistan's fitness and finishing both improved.

That improvement is the most encouraging part of the story. A team that conceded four to Gambia and four to Cyprus in week one scored 22 goals across five placement matches in week two. The format helped — 8-a-side games on small pitches reward quick passing and sharp finishing, and Pakistan's players grew visibly more comfortable with it as the festival went on — but the goals still had to be scored, and the defending in the Djibouti finale, when a one-goal lead had to be protected under sustained pressure, was the most mature passage of play in the whole campaign.

What comes next: the SAFF Championship in Dhaka

There is no long rest for this squad. Pakistan's next assignment is the SAFF U-15 Championship in Dhaka, which runs from November 4 to 17. Pakistan open against India on November 5 and face Maldives on November 8, and the regional tournament will be a very different test from Baku: full-size expectations, familiar rivals, and a trophy on the line rather than a placement bracket.

The Baku experience should serve them well there. This squad now knows how to come back from a goal down, how to protect a lead, and how to score in bunches. The challenge in Dhaka will be carrying the second-week form into a tournament where every opponent has scouted them and where the games, unlike the festival's placement rounds, all count from the first whistle.

Why this campaign will be remembered

Pakistan's football history is full of near-misses and false starts. This one is different because it actually happened: a Pakistan team, wearing the green shirt, playing ten matches under the FIFA banner, and finishing with a win. The 169th-place finish will not impress anyone on its own, but it is a starting point with a real number attached to it — the next Pakistan youth team to reach a FIFA event will be measured against four wins, two draws, and a comeback victory in its final match.

For the players, the lesson is simpler. They went to Baku as pioneers and came home as winners of their last game. If the same group, or a core of it, carries that belief into Dhaka next week, the SAFF Championship could be where this story turns from a memorable debut into a genuine breakthrough.

Photos: Wikimedia Commons (free licence) — illustrative images of youth football, not photographs from the Baku matches. Sources: Geo Super, Pakistan TV, Centreline, DNA News Agency, Pakera (reading of FIFA match data).