Pacific

Sport: Football Ferns flying at OFC Nations Cup

16:16 pm on 26 November 2018

New Zealand will meet hosts New Caledonia in the OFC Women's Nations Cup semi finals after crushing Fiji 10-0 to finish with a perfect record at the top of Group B.

Sarah Gregorious bagged a hat-trick for the Football Ferns while Annalie Longo and Katie Rood scored two goals each for the defending champions.

The Football Ferns scored 10 unanswered goals against Fiji. Photo: Avikash Chand / OFC Media

Coach Tom Sermanni said he was pleased with another professional performance from his team.

"I was happy with how we started the game and getting some early goals makes life easier for us", he said.

"I think Fiji obviously rested quite a lot of their players tonight and put in some of of their younger, less experienced players so that probably helped us a little bit as well."

Fiji coach Marika Rodu made nine changes to his starting line-up with his focus already on Wednesday's semi final against Papua New Guinea in Maré.

"I think we don't have the luxury of New Zealand having two teams that can play at any time. With our mind focusing on the semi-final I will not take the risk of getting people injured," he said.

Fiji women's football coach Marika Rodu. Photo: Avikash Chand / OFC Media

Group A winners PNG came from a goal down to beat Tahiti 3-1 on Saturday.

Despite winning all three of their matches, Lakatois coach Peter Gunemba said the game revealed some weaknesses they would have to work on ahead of the semi-final.

"When Tahiti scored I didn't panic because I felt we would always be able to win. They were caught by surprise when Tahiti scored the first goal they were all confused in the first half especially.

"We scored the equaliser in the first half and that gave us back our confidence and we started passing better and were able to score."

Ramona Padio scored twice in Papua New Guinea's comeback win. Photo: OFC via Phototek

New Caledonia secured the fourth and final semi-final berth with a 2-0 win against Samoa in Kone on Saturday.

"We're in the semi-finals, yes, but I think today what made me happiest is that the players showed today what they are capable of," said New Caledonia coach Kamali Fitialeata.

"We played our game today and that's what pleased me the most. The word of the day today was 'patient' and the players applied our advice."

New Caledonia's Ami-Nata Ajapuhnya celebrates scoring the opening goal of the match. Photo: OFC via Phototek

Meanwhile, Tonga ended their campaign with a narrow 1-0 win over the Cook Islands.

Laveni Vaka scored what proved to be the match-winner in just the third minute, latching onto the end of a free kick from her sister, Daviana Vaka.

"I am just happy for the girls (after) we lost heavily in our previous two games against Fiji and New Zealand and there was only one way to go, we must win this one," said Tonga coach Christian Koaneti.

"We came a long way to go back to Tonga with nothing so I'm just happy it turned out in our favour," he said.

Koaneti said his team wiould now turn their focus to the Pacific Games in Samoa, which begin in July.

Laveni Vaka (5) scored the only goal of the game. Photo: Avikash Chand / OFC Media