Oceania World Cup Qualification

Oceania

The winner of the Oceania Group will then play against the winner of the play-off between the two 3rd-placed Asian sides for a spot in the World Cup finals.

Standings

The smallest of all the qualifying sectors seen just four sides competing for a play-off match with the third-place play-off winner in the Asian sector. That team will now be New Zealand after they cruised to a first place finish, seven points ahead of New Caledonia who finished in second. Unfortunately for New Zealand, all their hard work could be in vein if they don’t beat the Asian play-off winner. New Zealand will have longer to prepare though for the play-off showdown with either Bahrain or Saudi Arabia and that could be a big advantage.

New Zealand lost just one game on road to a first place finish and that came right at the very end when they went down to a surprise home defeat against Fiji but by this time, New Zealand had already qualified. New Zealand were on a run of five straight wins before that defeat. They scored 14 goals in the process and kept a tidy defensive record of conceding just five goals in six matches. When you consider that two of those came against Fiji in their first defeat of the campaign then that’s some achievement, despite the quality of sides in the group.

New Zealand Results

New Zealand 0 – 2 Fiji
New Zealand 3 – 0 New Caledonia
New Caledonia 1 -3 New Zealand
New Zealand 4 – 1 Vanuatu
Vanuatu 1 – 2 New Zealand
Fiji 0 – 2 New Zealand

World Cup Play-Off

Date To Be Confirmed – New Zealand V Saudi Arabia/Bahrain