After Japan, another country has early won a ticket to the 2026 World Cup

While the South American and Asian qualifiers are coming to an end, and Europe is just getting started, Oceania has already concluded its competitions. Eleven teams have competed to select the last two names to go to the final match: New Caledonia and New Zealand.

The balance of power between the two teams is very different, with one side consisting of unknown players, some of whom only play semi-professionally, and the other side consisting of professional players, many of whom are playing in Europe, especially possessing one of the best goal scorers in the Premier League this season, Chris Wood (Nottingham Forest).

Historically, New Zealand has consistently won against New Caledonia, so in the final this afternoon (March 24), fans all believe in an easy victory for the stronger team.

As expected, Chris Wood was the most obvious threat for New Zealand, but he was constantly marked. Even when he found a rare opening to shoot, the Nottingham Forest player was blocked by goalkeeper Nyikeine. A series of missed chances meant New Zealand had to accept a goalless draw at the end of the first half.

Boxall celebrates opening the scoring

In the second half, New Zealand's attack increased and in the 61st minute, they broke the deadlock with a goal from Boxall. 5 minutes later, New Zealand doubled the gap and considered the match decided because New Caledonia's attack was very weak. They advocated a defensive approach to protect their goal, but when the plan failed, the team had almost no attacking options.

In the 80th minute, the match was decided by Elijah Henry's easy finish. New Zealand won 3-0 and won the only direct ticket from Oceania to the 2026 World Cup finals. This is the third time in history, after 1982 and 2010, that New Zealand has reached the finals of a World Cup.

Losers New Caledonia still have a chance to progress as they will enter an intercontinental play-off against the losers from Africa, South America and Asia. However, the chances of the small island nation are slim.

Dang Lai

Source: https://tienphong.vn/sau-nhat-ban-them-mot-quoc-gia-som-doat-ve-du-world-cup-2026-post1727726.tpo