Wooden hits hat-trick as rampant New Zealand transfer to brink of World Cup
Chris Wooden scored a hat-trick of headers as New Zealand moved to inside one win of the World Cup with a 7-0 demolition of Fiji on Friday.
New Zealand will face 152nd-ranked New Caledonia in Auckland on Monday for a spot on the 2026 World Cup in america, Canada and Mexico.
Wooden was subbed off after sealing his treble with just below half-hour left and, with the sport occurring, the Nottingham Forest striker climbed into the stands in Wellington to signal autographs.
A smiling Wooden was promptly booked by the referee.
“If that is the foundations, that is the foundations. Simply doing one thing good and attempting to signal for the followers,” stated Wooden, who has hit 18 targets within the Premier League to fireplace Forest into the Champions League locations.
New Zealand are 89th within the FIFA rankings and red-hot favourites to succeed in the World Cup for the third time, to go together with appearances in 1982 and 2010.
They’ve by no means received a match at soccer’s showpiece in six makes an attempt.
There was solely ever one group in it towards Fiji’s newbie aspect of law enforcement officials and development employees.
Wooden is having fun with the most effective season of his profession at age 33 and he nodded in unmarked after six minutes to place New Zealand on their manner.
The skipper repeated the trick, all headers, within the 56th and sixtieth minutes. Wooden now has 44 targets in 81 video games for his nation.
Sarpreet Singh, Tyler Bindon, Tim Payne and Kosta Barbarouses all received in on the act for New Zealand.
“It is all in regards to the group,” stated Wooden. “It was a dominant first half and we stored it going into the second half. The group did rather well in that sense.”
Within the first semi-final of Oceania qualifying, New Caledonia scored thrice within the second half for a 3-0 win over fellow minnows Tahiti.
Subsequent 12 months’s World Cup has been expanded to 48 groups, which means direct entry for the group that wins the qualifying competitors in Oceania.
The area’s prime aspect beforehand needed to undergo an intercontinental playoff, with New Zealand falling on the closing hurdle to Mexico, Costa Rica and Peru in current editions.
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