New Zealand under-23 men one win away from Paris Olympics after cruising past Vanuatu

At Go Media Stadium Mt Smart: New Zealand 8 (Jesse Randall 3’ 12’, Oskar van Hattum 10’ 39’, George Ott 17’, Ryan Verney 43’, Aaryan Raj 55’, 71’) Vanuatu 0. HT: 6-0

The New Zealand under-23 men’s football team are one win away from securing a place at the Paris Olympics next year.

They cruised past Vanuatu 8-0 in their Oceania qualifying semifinal at Go Media Stadium Mt Smart in Auckland on Wednesday afternoon, in what was an extremely one-sided match.

Fiji beat the Solomon Islands 3-0 in the other semifinal at the same venue on Wednesday evening to set up a group A rematch in Saturday’s decider at North Harbour Stadium.

Fiji should test Darren Bazeley’s charges more than Vanuatu did, though the host nation will be heavy favourites, having won their first meeting a week ago 3-1, with several first-choice players absent.

Jesse Randall and Oskar van Hattum each grabbed first-half braces playing on either side of a front three, while the man in the middle, George Ott slotted a penalty in the 17th minute.

Ott’s goal capped an opening period where Randall scored twice either side of van Hattum’s first header – his second goal coming after a long solo run down the left.

The early blitz turned the match into a training exercise for the 70 minutes that remained.

Van Hattum’s second header came six minutes before halftime, while Ryan Verney finished neatly from the top of the box four minutes later to make it 6-0 at the break.

Bazeley made five changes at halftime, including removing Randall and van Hattum to keep them fresh for Saturday’s final, even though that denied them the chance to complete hat-tricks.

Centre back Aaryan Raj became the third New Zealander to score a brace, heading home in the 55th minute and then finishing tidily from the middle of the box in the 71st.

New Zealand’s win over Fiji was the only group A match they played, with the other, against Papua New Guinea, being recorded as 3-0 default win after their opponents failed to arrive in the country on time.