Oceania Football Confederation U-17 Championship

Over 1,000 spectators turned up to watch the semi-final at Stade Mahina in a nail-biter that finished with Oliver Whyte breaking PNG hearts by scoring in the 94^th minute of play to win 2-1.

New Zealand were one up in the third minute when PNG’s Aben Pukue attempted to clear a cross but found the back of his own net.

But PNG equalised through Barthy Kerobin to end the first half with the score at 1-1.

Both sides were neck and neck in the second half and the match looked certain to end in a draw.

Tahiti took a 1-0 lead just 10 minutes into the first half when an unmarked Eddy Kaspard fired one past PNG’s keeper Graham Berigami.

Kaspard came close to scoring his second just minutes later when he attempted to head the ball into the nets from a cross.

Both sides battled on and went into half time with Tahiti still in the lead.

It took 71 minutes for PNG to finally get on the board through the boot of Jonathan Allen who equalised and put PNG right back in the game.

PNG went down 3-2 to New Caledonia in the round one match last Saturday and then settled for a 3-3 draw with Vanuatu on Wednesday this week.

The match will kick off at 7pm local time (3pm PNG time, Saturday)

The Group A standings:

New Caledonia (4), Tahiti (4), Papua New Guinea (1), Vanuatu (1).

The Group B standings:

New Zealand (6), Fiji (4), Solomon Islands (1), Samoa (0).

The OFC U-17 Championship will run from February 11-24.

(File picture)

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PNG were first on the board in the 16^th minute of play when Aben Pukue struck one past Vanuatu’s keeper, Joshua Willie.

Vanuatu hit back not long after when a mix up in the box allowed Dilland Ngwele to equalize.

PNG were one up again right before the break when a penalty awarded saw Barthy Pukue fire through his side’s second goal of the match to take PNG to a 2-1 lead at half time.

But the score was level again in the 55^th minute thanks to the boot of Abert Vanva.