Myanmar have qualified for the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup for the first time in the nation’s history after a Than Paing goal led Myanmar to victory 1-0 over favourites for the game the United Arab Emirates.
Playing at Yangon’s Thuwunna Youth Training Centre Stadium in the AFC U-19 Championship quarter-finals, the victory qualifies them for a semi-final on Monday and a trip to New Zealand in May and June of next year.
The victory returns Myanmar youth football to a position it has not seen since the ‘60s and early ‘70s, a period the country’s fans describe as the ‘Golden Age’, when the White Angels won AFC Youth Championships and qualified for the 1972 Munich Olympics.