Photo Credit: OFC Media via Trevor Mallen Photography

Papua New Guinea’s first men’s international on home soil has yielded an exciting draw with Fiji, to keep both teams in the hunt for a semi-final place.

In front of a passionate home crowd, Felipe Vega-Arango’s side started strongly but were just unable to keep hold of their advantage.

Just two minutes were on the clock when the home team opened the scoring – Joseph Joe taking advantage of a loose ball to drive home from inside the area.

They held the lead for much of the first period, as Fiji toiled in attack, unable to deal with their opponents’ aggressive press.

When the leveller did arrive, it was thanks to some excellent play by Setareki Hughes, making his way down the right-hand side and lifting a delicate cross for the onrushing Thomas Dunn to head in from six yards out.

Parity lasted only a matter of minutes, as Ati Kepo pounced on a loose ball in the box and acrobatically lifted the ball over his own shoulder and past a despairing Jerome Narayan in the Fiji goal.

To their credit, Fiji hit back strongly after the break and were gifted a great chance to equalise from the penalty spot. Roy Krishna – so often Fiji’s hero – made no mistake, smashing past Dave Tomare to make it 2-2.

Fiji almost snatched the lead, when Nabil Begg met Sterling Vasconcellos’ cross with an excellent header that faded just wide of Tomare’s right-hand post.

As the clock ticked down, both teams were determined to keep fighting to seal the deal. It came just in time for Raymond Gunemba, who delivered a powerful header that found the back of the net, igniting the home crowd.

However, just seconds later, Fiji had the final say. Merrill Nand responded with a well-placed header, leaving Papua New Guinea in disbelief and ending the game in a dramatic 3-3 draw.

The result leaves Papua New Guinea still alive in Group A, but they will have to beat Solomon Islands on Sunday and hope New Caledonia who have already qualified for the semi-finals, beat Fiji.

Papua New Guinea: 3 (Joseph JOE 2’, Ati KEPO 45’, Raymond GUNEMBA 90+5′)
Fiji: 3 (Thomas DUNN 43’, Roy KRISHNA (P) 54′, Merrill NAND 90+6′)

HT: 2-1