Pakistan U-15s: First FIFA Win, Then Penalty Exit in Baku

Pakistan's young Shaheens lived an entire tournament in a single day in Baku. On Wednesday, October 28, 2026, they made history with their first-ever victory on a FIFA World Cup stage — a 6-1 thrashing of Tonga built on four goals from Kaleemullah — and then, hours later, saw their Tier F title dream ended by the cruellest of margins, a 4-3 penalty shootout defeat to Nepal after a goalless draw. It was a day that captured everything about this team: the attacking courage that had been building all week, and the fine margins that decide knockout football.

For a team that had arrived in Azerbaijan without a win in five matches, the Tonga result alone would have made the trip worthwhile. That it was followed the same evening by a shootout exit does not erase it. Pakistan's Under-15s leave the Tier F title race with a piece of history no Pakistani team had managed before them, a genuine star in Kaleemullah, and a set of lessons that should serve the senior pathway well — starting with next week's SAFF Championship.

The Tonga rout: history in 40 minutes

Pakistan began their Tier F campaign on Wednesday the way they had begun so much of this tournament: behind. Tonga were awarded a penalty against the run of play in the sixth minute and converted it, silencing the Shaheens' bright start. What happened next showed how far this side had come since the opening defeat to Gambia four days earlier.

Kaleemullah levelled from the penalty spot a minute later, in the seventh minute, and Pakistan never looked back. In the 13th minute a cross from the right found the forward in space and he headed home to put the Shaheens ahead. The pressure never relented, and just before the break, in first-half stoppage time, Kaleemullah converted a second penalty to complete his hat-trick and give Pakistan a commanding half-time advantage.

The second half brought more of the same. A kick-in from the left reached Kaleemullah at the far post, where he rose above the defence to head home his fourth goal of the match. Maqbool then added a fifth with a powerful long-range strike that gave the Tonga goalkeeper no chance, before Mustafa completed the scoring with a composed, well-placed finish after a move down the left. Pakistan could easily have scored more; chances kept coming until the final whistle.

The 6-1 scoreline ended a five-match winless streak that had stretched across the group stage: three defeats and two draws. Pakistan Football Federation president Syed Mohsen Gilani, who watched the match in person, congratulated the squad afterwards, noting that they had become the first Pakistani team to record a victory on the FIFA World Cup stage. It was a fitting reward for a group that had kept believing after a bruising start.

How the goals came: Pakistan 6-1 Tonga

Minute	Event
6'	Tonga take the lead from the penalty spot
7'	Kaleemullah equalises from the penalty spot
13'	Kaleemullah heads in a cross from the right
45'+	Kaleemullah completes his hat-trick with a second penalty
Second half	Kaleemullah heads home his fourth at the far post from a kick-in
Second half	Maqbool scores with a powerful long-range strike
Second half	Mustafa finishes a move down the left to make it 6-1

Goal sequence as reported by Geo Super, The News, PK SportsLink, Kashmir English and Daily The Destination. No individual scorer has been credited here beyond what those reports confirm.

Kaleemullah: the star of the campaign

No player has defined Pakistan's tournament more than Kaleemullah. The forward scored in both of the Monday draws that steadied the campaign — the opener against Jordan and the display against Nigeria — and then produced the finest individual performance by a Pakistani player at the festival against Tonga. Four goals in a single match, in a tournament where he had already scored in the group stage, is the kind of return that gets a young striker noticed.

What stands out is the variety. Against Tonga he scored from the spot twice, headed in a cross, and headed home a set-piece delivery at the far post. That is not a poacher's luck; it is a forward who attacks every kind of delivery. In the 8-a-side format used in Baku — two 20-minute halves on smaller pitches, with rolling substitutions — space is tight and chances must be taken quickly. Kaleemullah took his.

Pakistan's coaches will also note the temperament. After Tonga's early penalty, the Shaheens did not retreat into their shells. They took control of the contest, pinned Tonga back, and kept attacking at 4-1 and 5-1. That response, after a week in which they had conceded early in several matches, suggests a dressing room that is learning fast.

The Nepal shootout: a goalless draw, a 4-3 defeat

The evening brought a different test entirely. Pakistan's Tier F round-of-16 tie against Nepal finished 0-0, and with no goals to separate the sides, the match went to penalties. Nepal converted four of their kicks to Pakistan's three, winning the shootout 4-3 and advancing to the Tier F quarter-finals, where they were due to face Fiji on Thursday, October 29.

There is no disguising the disappointment. A team that had scored six goals earlier in the day could not find one when it mattered most, and a shootout is always a lottery that punishes one missed kick. But context matters here too. Nepal had beaten Solomon Islands to reach this stage, and the goalless draw itself showed a defensive discipline that had been missing in the 4-0 defeat to Cyprus three days earlier. Pakistan did not lose this tie in open play; they lost it by a single kick in a shootout.

It is also worth understanding the festival format, because it changes what "out" means. The inaugural FIFA U-15 World Cup and Festival in Baku brings together 189 teams, sorted after the group stage into six performance tiers, A to F, so that teams of similar strength keep playing each other. Losing a Tier F knockout tie ends the title race in that tier, but the festival continues with placement matches through to the tier finals on October 30. Pakistan's Baku story does not simply stop; it moves into the placement bracket, with more international minutes for a squad that needs exactly that.

The campaign in full

Date	Match	Result
Oct 24	Pakistan vs Gambia (Group AD)	Lost 4-2
Oct 25	Pakistan vs South Sudan	Lost 1-0
Oct 25	Pakistan vs Cyprus	Lost 4-0
Oct 26	Pakistan vs Jordan	Drew 1-1
Oct 26	Pakistan vs Nigeria	Drew 1-1
Oct 28	Pakistan vs Tonga (Tier F)	Won 6-1
Oct 28	Pakistan vs Nepal (Tier F last 16)	Drew 0-0, lost 4-3 on penalties

Read as a whole, the arc is clear. Three defeats, then two draws, then a historic win, then a shootout defeat. The group stage left Pakistan with two points from five matches and a place in Tier F; the tier stage gave them the win that will be remembered, and the shootout that will sting. Ten goals scored across the seven matches, with Kaleemullah responsible for the majority of the headlines, is a respectable return for a team playing its first FIFA tournament.

What happens next: the SAFF Championship

The most encouraging part of this story is that the road does not end in Baku. Pakistan's senior pathway has an immediate next step: the SAFF Championship, hosted by Bangladesh from November 4 to 17, with Pakistan's group fixtures against India on November 5 and the Maldives on November 8. A training camp for that tournament has already opened in Islamabad under head coach Nolberto Solano.

That context is why the Baku experience matters so much. A generation of Pakistani players has now faced Gambia, Nigeria, Cyprus, Jordan, Nepal and Tonga in the space of a week — styles and tempos they would never meet at home. The Tonga win proves they can dominate a match at this level; the Nepal shootout proves how thin the margins are when they do not. Both lessons travel to Dhaka.

For Pakistani football more broadly, the week has been a rare run of good news. The women's team returned to international football at last year's SAFF Championship in Nepal, the men's youth team has now won on a FIFA stage for the first time, and the federation's focus is shifting to keeping these players together rather than letting a tournament squad dissolve. If the PFF can build on Baku — with fixtures, coaching continuity and the kind of exposure Kaleemullah has just earned — this will be remembered as a starting point, not a one-off.

The verdict

October 28, 2026, will be remembered in Pakistani football for two results, not one. The 6-1 win over Tonga was history, full stop: the first FIFA World Cup stage victory by any Pakistani team, delivered by a four-goal performance from a striker who announced himself to the country. The 4-3 shootout defeat to Nepal was heartbreak, but it was heartbreak with a shape to it — a goalless draw, a single missed kick, and a Tier F title race that ended one step short of the quarter-finals.

For the Shaheens, the task now is to make sure Baku was a beginning. The placement matches still to come, and then Dhaka, will show whether this group can turn a historic day into a habit. On the evidence of Wednesday — six goals in one match, and the composure to hold Nepal scoreless in the other — they have earned the right to be taken seriously. Pakistani fans should remember both halves of that day: the history, and the hunger it should create.

Sources: Geo Super, The News, PK SportsLink, Kashmir English and Daily The Destination for the Tonga 6-1 win and goal sequence; 24 Ghanta Nepal and the tournament bracket for the Nepal 0-0 draw and 4-3 shootout; Friends of Football and Malta Football for the Tier F quarter-final line-up; Good News Pakistan and FootballPakistan for the SAFF Championship camp and fixtures. Photos are illustrative youth-football images from Wikimedia Commons, not photographs from the Baku matches.