Papua New Guinea U20 men got out of the OFC U20 championships in Vanuatu happily after being whacked out by the host team Vanuatu 3-1 in the second qualifying match of Pool A yesterday.
There were mixed emotions after another close game that got away tragically as the boys lost two of their qualifying match in Pool A against New Caledonia and Vanuatu respectively.
PNG U20 Coach Peter Gunemba was happy with the boys for doing their best but unfortunately, missed out to qualify for the U20 world cup next year in Korea.
“We were determined to win this game but we knew it would only be by one goal or something, but we go out happy,” Coach Gunemba said.
“We knew Vanuatu would write us off after the performance against New Caledonia game when we went down 4-1,” he added.
“We came with a lot of confidence to win this game but unlucky for us we cost the game ourselves.”
Group A games will conclude on Saturday with Fiji facing Papua New Guinea at noon and New Caledonia squaring off against Vanuatu at 3pm.
PNG still have another game against Fiji, which will see the latter hoping to beat PNG to reach the semi-finals and have a shot at claiming one of two tickets to next year’s FIFA U-20 World Cup.