City miss out on last eight
LAE City failed to advance to the Oceania Football Confederation Champions League quarterfinals after their 0-3 loss to group-B hosts Malampa Revivors in Luganville, Vanuatu, on Friday.
The Kumul Petroleum National Soccer League champions went into the final day of the pool matches as group leaders but Andre Batick returned from suspension to score a hat-trick and propel Malampa to the knockouts.
Batick missed Tuesday’s 2-2 draw with Henderson after he copped a red card in the opening match but could not have scripted a more emphatic return as the home side topped the group.
The Revivors were quick on the counter and it was Batick’s pace that proved too much to contain and the Vanuatu international made City pay at the Luganville Soccer City Stadium.
City finished the game with nine men after Nigel Dabinyaba and captain Raymond Gunemba both received their second yellow cards during the same sequence of events late in the game.
Malampa were playing in front of a boisterous home crowd and a collection of local dignitaries on a public holiday in Vanuatu.
The victory ensures they will play their quarterfinal in Vanuatu in April.
“We really prepared to win this game,” Malampa coach Steve Varegali said.
Despite coming off the back of a 7-0 win over Lautoka on Tuesday, City were unable to breach the Malampa defence as defender Tasso Jeffrey put in another strong performance.
“It’s very disappointing,” City coach Peter Gunemba said.
“I didn’t expect to lose the game that way because the boys played very well in the last few games and we were thinking that this game was going to be our game.”
Meanwhile, Solomon Islands’ side Henderson Eels beat Lautoka 3-2 to advance to the quarterfinals as group runners-up. – OFC
2 comments
This goes to show PNG soccer still has a long way to go in terms of technical, tactical, and skills development in the game. We do not have coaches with the expert technical knowledge, vision, game analysis skills and game tactical planning skills to compete with other countries. Smaller countries like Vanuatu and Solomon Islands are far more superior than us. No wonder one of our top two teams is being coached by a Solomon Islander.
PNG need a vibrant junior development program not only in soccer but rugby league too. We don’t have a sustainable youth program in the country for soccer. There is on going programs such as the soccer academics being build but this is not adequate in the long run. What the teams are producing is luck at this tournaments. We need to seriously address this issue then we can participate with the intend of winning. Otherwise the result is generally good for the country as a whole.
Comments are closed.