Nigeria’s Future Eagles completed the first stage of the inaugural FIFA U-15 World Cup & Festival with a 1-1 draw against Pakistan in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Monday afternoon.

The result saw Nigeria finish Group AD unbeaten, collecting seven points from five matches. Their campaign consisted of one win and four draws.

Pakistan opened the scoring in the 21st minute through forward Kaleemullah Ullah. The striker was picked out beside the penalty spot and finished clinically to register his second goal of the day, having earlier scored against Jordan.

Nigeria restored parity four minutes later. Timothy Ijach reacted first when the ball broke loose inside the penalty area and poked it into the net in the 25th minute.

The Future Eagles scored 11 goals during the group stage but conceded 10, highlighting both their attacking threat and defensive vulnerability in the tournament’s eight-a-side format. Matches are played over two 20-minute halves.

Nigeria will now discover which of six performance-based tiers they will enter in the second phase. Those fixtures will be played on October 28 and 29, with the tier finals scheduled for October 30.

The FIFA U-15 World Cup and Festival is FIFA’s largest-ever youth event, featuring 189 member associations.