Vanuatu defeat Fiji to earn a place in the semifinal of 2011 OFC Futsal Championship
Vanuatu became the first team to proceed to the semifinals of the Oceanic Football Confederation (OFC) Futsal Championship. They took down Fiji, the runners-up of the last two championships, 5-2 on the second day of play.
The hopes are still alive for Fiji but they need a massive victory against Kiribati, the team playing their first ever championship.
Vanuatu's coach, Jean-Yves Galine said while speaking to reporters, “We are very happy with the victory, we came here well prepared and determined to win. We were confident of winning our first two matches and qualifying for the semi final. We are here for
one reason - to win the championship and take back home the gold.”
Vanuatu made an impressive start to the match and managed to score some early goals. Louis Dominique scored the first goal for Vanuatu in the second minute of the match. It went from bad to worse for Fiji as Fenedy Masauvakalo, Don Mansale and Shivam Nathan
scored consecutive goals in the first five minutes of the game. As a result, the Vanuatu outfit took an early 4-0 lead.
Fiji's dreams of reaching the semifinal were dealt a severe blow and they had to respond. Ajesh Narayan from Fiji stepped up and scored the first goal in the ninth minute of the first half. After that goal, fans sensed a come-back but unfortunately for the
Fijians, it ended there and no more goals were scored from their side.
However, there was no stopping Vanuatu as they scored their fifth in the 17th minute of the first half through Ben Hungai. Although it was only the first half and an inspired performance by Fiji in the second half could instill some life in the
completely one-sided match, that wasn't meant to be.
Both teams struggled in front of goal in the second half as the match went towards the expected result. However, in the 37th minute of the match, Sandeep Nair scored the second goal from the Fijian side. The strike though, turned out to be a consolation
goal and the match ended 5-2 in favour of Vanuatu.
A disappointed Fiji coach, Intiaz Khan said after the match, “Vanuatu had good structure and they were determined to get a win. They made use of the opportunities they had and we could not do the same. We still have a slim chance of qualifying but that will
depend on other results. We will give our best in our last pool game and wait for the outcome.”
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