{"id":602134,"date":"2026-09-16T12:40:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T12:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/602134\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T12:40:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T12:40:19","slug":"here-we-come-young-ferns-qualify-for-2027-fifa-u-17-womens-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/602134\/","title":{"rendered":"Here we come! Young Ferns qualify for 2027 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Zealand have qualified for next year\u2019s FIFA U-17 Women\u2019s World Cup in Morocco after beating Papua New Guinea 3-0 in Honiara.<\/p>\n

The win, in the semi-finals of the OFC U-16 Women\u2019s Championship, ensures New Zealand will be one of Oceania\u2019s two representatives at the 2027 global tournament. It will be New Zealand\u2019s 11th consecutive appearance at the U-16 World Cup.<\/p>\n

The second qualifying spot at the World Cup will go to either New Caledonia or Fiji, due to meet in Wednesday\u2019s second semi-final.<\/p>\n

Reaching the OFC final also means New Zealand are one win away from an eighth OFC U-16 Women\u2019s Championship title.<\/p>\n

In Wednesday\u2019s semi-final, the Young Football Ferns cruised past Papua New Guinea.<\/p>\n

It took New Zealand 27 minutes to find the opening goal, though, the longest they\u2019ve ever had to wait for a goal in a semi-final in OFC U-16 Women\u2019s Championship history.<\/p>\n

Mila Clark got the breakthrough, nodding the ball past goalkeeper Roselyn Joses at the back post, following a corner delivery off the left flank from Saunders.<\/p>\n

Called into the championship as a late replacement, Papua New Guinea\u2019s return to the last four in 2026 drove them on, and they fought tooth and nail to frustrate New Zealand for as long as they could.<\/p>\n

The second goal came in the 62nd minute, with Madeleine Dwyer scoring her second of the tournament after Joses failed to hold out\u00a0her left-footed effort.<\/p>\n

Substitute Ruby Barber then rounded out the win for the Young Football Ferns in the 77th minute, picking out the bottom-left corner after being left unmarked from a Saunders delivery into the box from the right.<\/p>\n

Barber and Saunders both had further opportunities to add to the lead in the closing stages, but could only strike the woodwork.<\/p>\n

Main photo: New Zealand \u2026 heading to a World Cup. Photo credit: OFC Media \/ DJ Mills \/ Phototek<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Acknowledgement<\/p>\n

We thank OFC Media for providing information for this story.<\/p>\n

Results<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Games played on Wednesday September 16, 2026<\/p>\n

Semi-final 1<\/p>\n

New Zealand 3 (Mila Clark 27\u2032, Madeleine Dwyeer 62\u2032, Ruby Barber 77\u2032)
Papua New Guinea 0<\/p>\n

Semi-final 2<\/p>\n

New Caledonia
Fiji
*Result to come, kick-off 8pm (NZT)<\/p>\n

Fixtures<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Games to be played on Thursday September 17, 2026<\/p>\n

Play-off for 7th place<\/p>\n

Cook Islands v Tonga
National Stadium, Honiara, Solomon Islands, 5pm (NZT)<\/p>\n

Play-off for 5th place<\/p>\n

Solomon Islands v Samoa
National Stadium, Honiara, Solomon Islands, 8pm (NZT)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Games to be played on Saturday September 19, 2026<\/p>\n

Play-off for 3rd place<\/p>\n

Papua New Guinea 1 v losers semi-final 2
National Stadium, Honiara, Solomon Islands, 5pm (NZT)<\/p>\n

New Zealand v winners semi-final 2
National Stadium, Honiara, Solomon Islands, 8pm (NZT)<\/p>\n

This story was first published on September 16, 2026.<\/p>\n

More football stories<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand have qualified for next year\u2019s FIFA U-17 Women\u2019s World Cup in Morocco after beating Papua New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[227788,111,43,139,69,291657],"class_list":["post-602134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-fifa-u-17-womens-world-cup","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-ofc-u-16-womens-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}