In the early morning of March 28, Beijing time, the Oceania World Cup qualifiers ended a match, the New Zealand men's football team eliminated the Tahiti men's football team 1-0, and successfully advanced to the Oceania regional final, only 2 wins away from qualifying for the World Cup.
There are 8 teams in oceania, divided into 2 groups, and in the end, Solomon Islands and Tahiti are in the top two of Group A, and New Zealand and Papua New Guinea are in the top two of Group B, and they are advancing to the semifinals. In the semi-finals, Solomon Islands eliminated Papua New Guinea 3-0 earlier, and New Zealand, which played later, played Tahiti.
In the latest FIFA world rankings, New Zealand ranks 111th, Tahiti ranks 159th, the two teams are not in one class, and the number one star Chris Wood alone is worth far more than the Tahiti team miracle.
In the 70th minute of the second half, Chris Wood took the ball inside the penalty area and Kakache volleyed the ball into the goal to help New Zealand win 1-0 and eliminate Tahiti to advance to the final.
By the rules, the Oceania region has 0.5 World Cup spots, so New Zealand and solomon Islands compete for a continental play-off, and the winner will travel to Qatar in June this year to compete in the intercontinental play-offs against the fourth-place team in the North American region, which is not surprisingly produced between Costa Rica and Panama.
New Zealand is now only 2 games away from qualifying for the World Cup, and if it knocks out solomon Islands, it will compete with the fourth team in the North American division, which will require a 2-game winning streak.
Before 2006, New Zealand had almost no opportunity to participate in the intercontinental play-offs because of Australia's presence, after which Australia left the Oceania Football Federation and chose to join the AFC, and New Zealand also became the "boss" of Oceania.
After Australia left the Oceania region, New Zealand only reached the Final Round of the World Cup in 2010, the second time in the team's history. New Zealand is now only 2 games away from participating in the World Cup for the third time in team history, and the number of participation will be thrown away from the national football team, which only participated in the World Cup in 2002.