Fijian captain Kamal Hassan scored a first half double to lead his team a 3-1 win over New Caledonia in their crucial Day 3 group game at the Vodafone arena in Fiji.

Last year’s Golden Boot winner Hassan put his team in front in the seventh minute, finishing off an excellent individual counter-attack by teammate Uraia Raimulo Loki with a powerful drive.

And Hassan again gave New Caledonia keeper Ronan Euzen no chance in the tenth minute after silky footwork saw him leave his marker for dead in midcourt and blast another blistering drive into the net.

New Caledonia were gifted a lifeline back into the contest on 16 minutes, though, when the Fijian defence offered up a weak pass to Hassan who was easily robbed of possession by New Caledonia’s Christophe Whaap who then finished with a unstoppable shot into the back of the Fijian net.

Whaap then undid his good work by giving away consecutive deliberate handballs in the 18th and 19th minutes, both of which incurred yellow cards resulting in his sending off. New Caledonia then showed impressive steel and organisation to deny Fiji a third goal as the clock ran down to halftime.

But the hosts were able to restrict New Caledonia to minimal scoring chances in the second stanza and flank player Dinesh Chand Mudaliar took his teams’ lead to two goals with an excellent drive into the net from a wide angle on 30 minutes.

From there Fiji displayed patience and control to dominate possession in the final ten minutes as they held on for a re-match of their Match Day 2 encounter with the Solomons, this Friday night.

New Caledonia: 1. Ronan EUZEN (GK); 5. Anderson PAULIN; 8. Ismael TCHOVAMILI; 10. Loic CAUNES; 11. Ivann POUROUORO

Subs: 2. Jerry IARUEL; 3. Adrien GUILLAMO; 4. Louis WAISHITINE; 6. Henri DRUDI; 7. Rodrigue POIWI; 9. Christophe WHAAP; Arnaud LLAMBRICH (GK)

Goal: Christophe WHAAP 16′

Yellow Cards: Christophe WHAAP 18′, 19′

Fiji: 1. Simione Moce TAMANISAU (GK); 2. Mira SAHIB; 3. Sandeep NAIR; 4. Dinesh Chand MUDALIAR; 9. Kamal HASSAN

Subs: 5. Shivam NATHAN; 6. Mohammed SHALMEEN; 8. Aisea Dauivalu CODRO; 10. Uraia Raimulo LOKI; 11. Christopher Junior KUMAR; 12. Emori RAGATA (GK)

Goals: Kamal HASSAN 7′: 10′