At 22:00 Beijing time on March 21, 2022, the second round of the World Cup qualifier Oceania Qualifier Group B began, Papua New Guinea vs New Caledonia. Eight minutes into the opening of the first half, Papua New Guinea quickly broke the deadlock. The two teams were no more successful in the second half, with the New Caledonian players frustrated in the 88th minute, with ferocious defensive action drawing a red card from the referee. In the end, New Caledonia was historically defeated by Papua New Guinea for the first time 0-1, completely losing hope of qualifying from the group.
Papua New Guinea is currently 165th in FIFA, losing 1-2 to Fiji in the first round of the B group stage. New Caledonia fifa ranked 153rd and was beaten 1-0 by New Zealand in the first round. The two teams have met twice in history, with Papua New Guinea losing 1 draw and losing, which complements the rankings of the two teams. In this game, papua new guinea team is also riveted and wants to complete the journey of revenge.
After the start of the match, Papua New Guinea had the upper hand in possession, but New Caledonian attacked more efficiently. In the first half, he completed five shots on goal, 2 of which were on target. However, it was papua new guinea that took the lead. In the 8th minute of the first half, Papua New Guinea played a quick counter-attack, the team's No. 9 striker was physically strong, the impact was strong, and finally assisted his teammates to score.
In the 39th minute, New Caledonia played a four-foot pass in front of the field, and finally the striker completed a shot, but unfortunately it was slightly positive, and finally it was deflected by the goalkeeper. This attack played with quality, the idea is clear, frankly speaking, the national football team can not play such a cooperation. It can be seen that although the ranking of others is much behind the national football team, the level of football is not worse than that of the national football team. It's just that the Oceania team is too small, and because they only have 0.5 World Cup spots, they can't always rush out of Oceania.
In the second half, New Caledonia launched an almost crazy attack, and by the 75th minute of the game, it had achieved 12 shots and 6 shots on target, with a possession rate of 53%. Papua New Guinea fired six shots on goal and four shots on target.
In the 76th minute, papua new guinea was defending in its own penalty area when a teammate kicked the ball to his elbow and the referee did not say anything. In this regard, the New Caledonian players expressed strong dissatisfaction. The penalty broke down the New Caledonian players and finally made a ferocious steal in the 88th minute, this time without escaping the referee's eyes and being sent off with a red card.
In the end, Papua New Guinea beat the 10-man New Caledonia team 1-0. The match also set 3 new records. First, Papua New Guinea has historically beaten New Caledonia; second, Papua New Guinea has ended its three-game losing streak in Oceania qualifiers; and third, for the first time since 2008, New Caledonia have suffered two consecutive defeats in Oceania qualifiers.
Many fans who have seen the game think that the technical and tactical level of both teams is very amateurish. However, the players of both teams are black players, the impact is very strong, and the football talent is still very good. Although the ranking is not high, these two teams play the national football team is certainly no problem.