New Zealand have come out on top in Group A after a solid win over Vanuatu.
His counterpart, Vanuatu’s Juliano Schmeling, wasn’t too beaten down by the loss.
“For us it was a great moment to learn and to apply what we’ve been doing in training. It’s good for us to play against a quality team. This is the best way to learn,” he says.
“Obivously the result didn’t help. We didn’t want to have a result like that, but the formation that we played, in many moments it worked. But we need to be able to do that consistently and keep growing.”
It took only ten minutes before New Zealand had the lead in the game.
Elijah Just crossed to Max Mata, who won his duel on the back post and headed the ball into the back of the net.
“It was good for me to open my account for the national team,” Mata tells Football in Oceania.