In the early morning of March 22, Beijing time, the World Cup Oceania division continued, in which the big favourite New Zealand defeated Fiji 4-0 to get two consecutive wins in the group. After two rounds, New Zealand is also the only team in Oceania to have won two consecutive games, with 0.5 World Cup qualifications in the region.
New Zealand's FIFA ranking has reached 111th, and it has participated in the World Cup twice in its history. Although the ranking is outside the 100th place, in theory, their difficulty in qualifying is much lower than that of many Asian teams with more than 70 rankings such as national football and Iraq. With Australia joining the AFC, New Zealand is arguably the absolute hegemon of oceania.
Although new Zealand is very likely to qualify, it is not a small difficulty for them to really qualify for the World Cup. Since the Oceania division only has 0.5 qualifying places, even the top team will need to compete in the play-offs. In the previous draw, the qualifying team from the Oceania division will meet the team in the North American region.
Without the South American team, the Oceania division can be said to have escaped the disaster. After all, in terms of theoretical strength, the strength of the teams participating in the play-offs in South America must be far better than the other 3 continents. In terms of strength, the North American play-off teams are on par with the Asian play-off teams, so this doesn't have much to do with New Zealand.
To qualify for 0.5 places, New Zealand first had to make sure they finished first in the Oceania division. In this Oceania division, there are a total of 8 participating teams. Due to the epidemic and other reasons, Vanuatu and the Cook Islands have withdrawn from the tournament early. However, from the actual situation, New Zealand has won the regional first place, basically without too much effort.
In the first round of the match, although New Zealand was relatively difficult, it still won the opening red 1-0. In the second leg of the early morning match, New Zealand defeated Fiji 4-0, showing the strength of its own brother in the region. After 2 games, the opponent did not even get points on New Zealand.
When it comes to the players in the New Zealand team, the first thing that many fans think of must be Chris Wood. The New Zealand star, who joined the Premier League's new tycoon Newcastle in the winter window, paid 3,000 W Euros. Although Chris Wood is not very efficient at Newcastle, with only 1 goal in 10 games, he is undoubtedly the absolute leader of New Zealand football.
At the 2010 World Cup, New Zealand drew with then-defending champions Italy. Twenty-two years later, New Zealand football is looking forward to its third World Cup experience. Whether New Zealand, a brother in oceania, can successfully break through, let us wait and see.