Vanuatu remain afloat in the Oceania Under 20 Football Championship after holding hosts Fiji to a 2-2 draw in Suva on Thursday.
A win for Fiji would have clinched top spot and a place at next year's World Cup but now they must beat Solomon Islands to guarantee a berth.
Vanuatu are two points back and need to beat Papua New Guinea while hoping the Solomons do them a favour.
Vanuatu assistant coach Anthony Pisano was pleased with the performance of their players but rued their inability to snatch a goal at the death.
"We put a lot of pressure on them in the last quarter of the game and we were very unlucky but anyway, at least we're still in contention and we will go out there trying to win the game against PNG and hope the Solomons do us a favour. If we win that game at five o'clock it would put a bit of pressure on Fiji to get their result [in the later game] and the Solomons aren't an easy side to play against so you never know what happens."
Elsewhere, the Solomons put five unanswered goals past American Samoa to grab their first win of the competition and New Caledonia thrashed Papua New Guinea 5-1.
