A day after picking up their first win at an Under-20 World Cup the Junior All Whites made more history by qualifying for the round-of-16.
New Zealand's place in the second stage of their home tournament was confirmed without kicking a ball, after Senegal came from behind to bear Qatarand guarantee the hosts would be one of the best third-placed sides once pool play concludes.
Darren Bazeley was confident after yesterday's win over Myanmar that his side would move on, having accrued four points from three games, and the coach was glad the squad didn't have to endure a prolonged wait to book their place in the knockout phase.
"Funnily enough, we didn't have to wait long after our result last night," Bazeley said. "We looked at all the other groups and where they were standing and who was playing who, and we were pretty confident that we'd done enough to get through. We're very, very pleased."
Bazeley said now the New Zealand side was confirmed in the round-of-16, work would begin on plotting a path to the quarter-finals, regardless of their next opponent.
"From what we've been told it could be Portugal in Hamilton or Ghana in Wellington. Both would be great games to play and we've not really got a favourite. Either of those, once we find out, we'll start looking at how we can try and beat them.
"It's pretty satisfying to do what we set out to do, but now we need to go and try and do another thing and this next step would be a real history making one."
Along with their 5-1 thumping of Myanmar in Wellington, New Zealand were left owing a debt of gratitude to Qatar for limiting the damage in their loss to Senegal. The Asian nation scored the opening goal from the spot through Akram Afif and, despite Senegal scoring second-half goals through Alhassane Sylla and Moussa Kone, the Africans' margin of victory wasn't enough to threaten the All Whites' spot.
