Thailand moved into the knockout stage of the Fifa Futsal World Cup in Colombia with a 2-1 win over Egypt in their last group match yesterday morning.
The team will receive five million baht in bonus from sponsors for progressing past Group B.
Thailand will next meet the No.2 team from Group F, which can be either Azerbaijan or Iran, in the last-16 round on Thursday.
In yesterday's match, with so much riding on the game -- Thailand were only ahead in second place on goals scored -- the stakes seemed to weigh both sides down.
Poor decisions and poor execution also limited both team's opportunities and they failed to take their destiny into their own hands.
The opening goal was a perfect reflection of yesterday's game as Egypt's Ibrahim Eika sent the ball into his own net to hand Thailand their first goal of the match in the fifth minute.
In the first half, Egypt had more shots but still trailed the Thais by a goal.
The Thais woke up again after the break when Jirawat Sornwichian rolled the ball out of his feet and fired low past Egypt goalkeeper Gamal Abdelnaser in the 22nd minute.
There was certainly more intent in the second period from both sides, though the profligacy hardly dispersed fully.
Neither keeper had their busiest of nights, but the tension did raise a few notches as Abdelrahman Elashwal bundled in with a couple of minutes to go, before Egypt struck the post in the final minute.
However, Thailand held on and went through to the second stage of the tournament, with Egypt left facing a wait to see if three points are enough to carry them to the knockout phase.
After the match, Thailand coach Miguel Rodrigo said: "It was an important game for both teams. We did well at the beginning with some solid defending which was different from the first game with Russia, in which our defence was quite poor.
"We attacked as well today and in the end we succeeded in going through to the knockout stage with six points.
"For the next game, we don't know who we will play as we have to wait for the results from the other groups.
"We are happy to qualify to the knockout stage. We had worked hard though we only had one and a half months to prepare the team."
Adisak Benjasiriwan, chairman of the national committee for futsal development, said: "We are very proud that our players and staff coaches have claimed six points in the group stage for the first time in the Futsal World Cup.
"Today, our players did very well. They followed the game plan.
"We are the first Asian team to qualify for the next stage."