New Zealand's road to the knockout stages of this year's FIFA Under-20 World Cup have been made a little more difficult after blowing a two-goal lead against Uzbekistan this morning with an equaliser conceded in stoppage time.
The Kiwis jumped out to an impressive 2-0 lead in the first half with Ben Wallace scoring first in the 23rd minute.
Wallace struck against the run of play with a shot from outside the box before Jay Herdman - son of former Football Ferns coach and current Canada national men’s team coach John Herdman - extended the lead with one of the goals of the tournament so far.
Herdman shook off the defence with a slick turn to get free from just outside the box on the right to fire off his shot and sent it rocketing into the top-left corner in the 41st minute.
Despite the pair of impressive goals, New Zealand were still under the pump on defence with Uzbekistan coming out firing in the second half, chasing a comeback.
It saw them post a whopping 28 attempts on goal by the end of the match compared to New Zealand's six although the Kiwis had five of those on target while Uzbekistan only managed to have six promising efforts.
But two of them were converted - first through a Abbosbek Fayzullaev goal six minutes after the break before finally Sherzod Esanov found the equaliser three minutes into stoppage time.
Esanov managed to score after being left free in the box for a cross and didn't falter with a close-range header.
New Zealand coach Darren Bazeley conceded the team was disappointed with the late equaliser but wouldn't dwell on it.
"[We] secured another point at a World Cup," he said.
“It's a really great learning curve – you can't just go out and try and defend leads, you've got to still try and play.
“I thought we had moments [where we did that], but Uzbekistan are a good team and the pressure kept coming.
“It was a shame to concede so late, but I’m really, really proud of the boys.”
The draw leaves New Zealand with four points from their first two games, having previously beaten Guatemala 1-0, but what comes next is a tough ask with hosts Argentina their final pool match.
With New Zealand and Uzbekistan tied on points in Group A, the Kiwis could risk missing out on a top-two finish in their pool and automatically advancing to the knockout stages should they miss out on points against Argentina and Uzbekistan triumph against Guatemala.
However, there's still every chance the Kiwis get out of their pool even without a point from the South Americans with the four best third-placed teams joining the 12 winners and runner-ups from each pool.
New Zealand plays Argentina on Saturday at 9am.
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