22 JAN: New Zealand and Australia will meet in a home and away playoff to decide the Oceania representative to the Athens Olympic Games men’s football tournament in August.

In a highly entertaining finale to the group stages, New Zealand recovered from a 0-2 deficit in the first half to beat Vanuatu 3-2 in the Group B decider at North Harbour Stadium in Auckland tonight, while over in Sydney, Australia were too good for Fiji taking out Group A with a 6-0 win at Marconi Stadium.

In the earlier games, Samoa capped off a their campaign with a 4-4 draw against leading Papua New Guinea 4-3 with minutes remaining. However, the solitary point put Samoa was enough to put them ahead of Solomon Islands on the Group A points table and third place behind Australia and Fiji, easily Samoa’s best result ever in international football since becoming a FIFA member in 1986. PNG picked up their first points against Samoa.

Cook Islands defeated American Samoa 3-2 at North Harbour, securing their first win and goals of the 2004 OFC Men’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament. Tonga, who had the bye came in third place behind New Zealand and Vanuatu with two wins in a successful campaign by their expectations.

The first playoff will be played in Sydney on Monday, 26 January at Parramatta Stadium. The second playoff will be played next Friday, 30 January at North Harbour Stadium.

The winner will be decided on aggregate points over the two playoff matches and advance straight to Athens. It is the first time the OFC has been granted direct entry to the Olympics.

Results overview:

Group A – Marconi Stadium, Sydney:

5:00pm – Samoa 4-4 PNG (ht: 1-2 PNG)

7:30pm – Australia 6-0 Fiji (ht: 2-0 Australia)

Group B – North Harbour Stadium, Auckland:

5:00pm – Cook Islands 3-2 American Samoa (ht: 2-0 Cook Islands)

7:30pm – New Zealand 3-2 Vanuatu (ht: 1-2 Vanuatu)

FULL MATCH REPORTS TO FOLLOW

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