Photo: Collected
Bangladesh beat Singapore in a tiebreaker in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Wednesday. With this win, the red-and-greens secured a place in the quarter-finals of the FIFA Under-15 World Cup and Festival.
The match ended 1-1 after the regulation 40 minutes. Bangladesh’s goal came in the 12th minute, from Ratul. With the deadlock unbroken, the game went to a tiebreaker, where Bangladesh won 4-3.
Earlier, the round-of-32 match had followed the same pattern: Bangladesh drew 1-1 with Seychelles and won 4-2 in the tiebreaker. Tier ‘A’ of the knockout stage contains the 32 teams that won the 32 groups, competing to become champions or finish first. The 32 teams that finished second in the points table are in Tier ‘B’, and they will play a final to decide 33rd place. Bangladesh finished fifth in the group stage. The 32 teams that finished fifth are placed in Tier ‘E’. There, Bangladesh won their round-of-32 match to reach the last 16; the quarter-finals and semi-finals lie ahead. These teams are competing for the final to decide 129th place.
Bangladesh’s opponents in the six-team Group ‘G’ were Wales, Portugal, Burundi, Indonesia and Fiji. With one win, two draws and two defeats in five group matches, Bangladesh earned 5 points. The biggest distinctive feature of this FIFA tournament is that no team is eliminated outright after the group stage. Unlike a conventional World Cup, it is not simply a matter of advancing to the knockouts or being knocked out; all teams have been given the chance to play until the last day of the competition.
At a glance
According to an Inside World Football report dated 23 October 2026, 189 of the 211 invited member associations are taking part in the Under-15 tournament for the first time. Matches are being played in eight-a-side teams, in two halves of 20 minutes each, on small pitches.
The report says teams were divided into six tiers based on results from the first three days of the qualifying phase, and only the winner of Tier ‘A’ will be the overall champion. Bangladesh is one of the 78 participating teams that have never before played in any FIFA World Cup competition.
Sources
Original report: Bangladesh Pratidin
Background sources: Inside World Football, 23 October 2026
