New Caledonia have kept their FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup 2027\u2122 qualification hopes alive with a 2-1 victory over Vanuatu at a wet Govind Park in Ba.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both nations knew only a win would suffice after heavy opening defeats,\u00a0and\u00a0two first half goals\u00a0gave\u00a0New Caledonia just their third FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup\u2122 qualifying victory, and their first since 2018.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kan\u00e9\u00a0Dralu\u00a0opened the scoring with a superb solo goal in the 14th\u00a0minute, rounding multiple defenders and the goalkeeper, before Leana Hmae doubled New Caledonia\u2019s advantage in the 34th\u00a0minute with a header from a corner.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vanuatu weren\u2019t without their chances as they searched for the first goal of their qualifying campaign, with Nettie Kalsau having both a goal ruled out for offside, and then hitting the crossbar. \u00a0<\/p>\n
After hitting the post to start the second half,\u00a0Leimata\u00a0Simon halved the deficit with a goal in the 82nd\u00a0minute. It proved too little, too late\u00a0though, as New Caledonia\u00a0held on\u00a0for a crucial victory in the context of\u00a0their qualification campaign.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
New Caledonia:\u00a02\u00a0(Kan\u00e9\u00a0DRALU 14\u2019, Leana HMAE 34\u2019)
Vanuatu: 1 (Leimata SIMON 82\u2032)<\/p>\n
HT:\u00a02-0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Photo credit: OFC Media via\u00a0Phototek\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Caledonia have kept their FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup 2027\u2122 qualification hopes alive with a 2-1 victory over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-513184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}