City take on hosts Hienghene

Sports

By ISAAC LIRI
TOTI CITY FC will have to beat hosts Hienghene of New Caledonia tomorrow if they want to cement a spot in the OFC Champions League quarterfinals.
It will be their biggest test in Group A after a 3-3 draw with AS Tefana (Tahiti) and a crucial 4-2 win over Malampa Revivors (Vanuatu) this week in their group fixtures.
Qualifying for the quarterfinals is not a new thing for the Lae Biscuit Company-sponsored side, they were there last year and qualifying for the quarterfinals and advancing further is the objective for the Peter Gunemba-coached side.
Gunemba was pleased with the results however concerned with the overall effort put out so far.
He said their catch up style of football was a weakness because they could not afford to do that against the better sides especially if their advanced to the quarters.
“The way we start is our biggest weakness. We let the other teams score and then we had to catch up and equalise and that’s not the way we want to play,” Gunemba said.
“We talked about it after our first game and we made the same mistake again in our second game.”
City came from a 2-0 deficit at half time against AS Tefana to equalise 3-3 in their first game and then came from 1-0 down against Malampa to eventually win 4-2 thanks in large part to a hat-trick by captain Raymond Gunemba.
The other weak area that coach Gunemba pointed out was their missed opportunities against the Revivors.
“We missed so chances and my stats tell me we could have scored all up 14 goals.”
Heinghene at home are favoured but if skipper Gunemba can repeat his mesmerising form of late than Toti could book a spot in the OFC Champions League playoffs.
The New Caledonians are coming of two wins, an impressive 5-0 thrashing of Malampa (5-0) and a 1-0 victory over AS Tefana.
The game will be played at the Stade Yoshida, Kone, New Caledonia, at 4pm tomorrow.