New Zealand cruise to Nations Cup win

New Zealand have come out on top in Group A after a solid win over Vanuatu.

Vanuatu – New Zealand 0-4

“Going into this game, Vanuatu with a big crowd, it’s a challenging game for us. I thought we were pretty professional and controlled for most of the game, but they’ve got a few players who are pretty handy. But mostly I felt it was pretty comfortable”, New Zealand coach Darren Bazeley tells Football in Oceania.

“I feel we can reward ourselves by taking more shots and scoring more goals when we get into good positions.”

His counterpart, Vanuatu’s Juliano Schmeling, wasn’t too beaten down by the loss.

“For us it was a great moment to learn and to apply what we’ve been doing in training. It’s good for us to play against a quality team. This is the best way to learn,” he says.

“Obivously the result didn’t help. We didn’t want to have a result like that, but the formation that we played, in many moments it worked. But we need to be able to do that consistently and keep growing.”

It took only ten minutes before New Zealand had the lead in the game.

Elijah Just crossed to Max Mata, who won his duel on the back post and headed the ball into the back of the net.

“It was good for me to open my account for the national team,” Mata tells Football in Oceania.

Just before half an hour was played the ball was in the back of the net again. Mata pounced on a rebound from Vanuatu goalkeeper Dgen Leo. His shot rebounded of Vanuatu captain Brian Kaltack and into the net.

“I think I deserve that goal to be honest. I think Brian’s done well to get back to the goal line and I just hit it too hard,” Mata says.

A few minutes later Kosta Barbarouses thought he had brought the scoreline to three for New Zealand, but the assistant referee had his flag up signalling for offside, which the New Zealand players didn’t understand anything of.

Mata had another couple of good chances before half time, including hitting the cross bar from short distance, but neither team could not find the back of the net again in the first half.

New Zealand controlled the game after the break as well and just after the hour mark Elijah Just got a goal of his own. Vanuatu failed to clear a ball and Just’s shot from outside the box bounced awkwardly over keeper Leo and into the net.

Just was at it again with 13 minutes to play as his low cross found Ben Old, who slotted the ball into the back of the net for NZ’s fourth goal.

In the end New Zealand cruised in to a comfortable win.

Just was named the man of the match after the final whistle.

“Vanuatu are a good side, with some tricky players. We managed it well and deserved the win,” Just says.

Now the NZ side have some time off before the semi finals next week.

“We’ll take some time to recover and maybe have a look around, the island is really beautiful, and check some of the sights out.”

His coach can’t guarantee that there’ll be any sightseeing though.

“We’ve got a few days now when we can have a rest. We’ll make sure the boys are rested enough to go for the semi finals,” Bazeley says.

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