Felipe Vega-Arango

SI coach: Team deserved win

The win for Solomon Islands means they will meet Group A winners New Zealand in a home-and-away series.

“They deserved it. They’ve been working really hard.

“When I started coaching 6 weeks ago, they were just a bunch of people. We would go to practice and have only 14 players and on some days only 12 players.

“Now they are a team. Changing the mentality of a team is not easy. You need them to respond and to work really hard. They deserved it,” said Vega-Arango.