By TERRY MADDAFORD
New Zealand's Olympic dream lives on, but only after the national under-23 side survived the fright of their lives at North Harbour Stadium tonight.
Needing to beat Vanuatu to win their group in the Oceania qualifiers, New Zealand were in big trouble at 0-2 - after 19 minutes - but fought back to win 3-2.
They will now meet the group A winners - likely to be Australia - away on Monday, with the return at North Harbour Stadium next Friday.
The game threatened to erupt with Australian referee Simon Micallef, who had a shocker, under siege at the end from enraged Vanuatu players.
New Zealand were stung when the visitors went ahead inside 10 minutes.
Quickly turning defence into attack, the tournament's leading goalscorer, Jean Maleb, charged, turned Tony Lochhead, and went on to score a well-taken goal.
That despair turned deeper 10 minutes later when Vanuatu's twin strikers, Maleb and Larry Thompsen - who had 11 goals between them going into this match - combined to make life a misery for the New Zealand defence.
Too slow to clear, the defence were punished when Thompsen added the final touch for 2-0.
In a game where the home side were too often out-paced, New Zealand lived off the scraps but without success.
Brent Fisher scooped an early effort over the bar and Shane Smeltz, after a long break from midfield, hit the bar.
Three minutes before halftime, New Zealand got one back when Lochhead headed home a David Mulligan free-kick.
Taking heart from that, the home side lifted the tempo in the second spell to score twice in 10 minutes.
Smeltz headed home a James Pritchett cross for a 53rd-minute equaliser; Mulligan then provided the ball and Fisher the header for 3-2.
Vanuatu continued to chase the goal they needed to win the group, with Maleb and new striking partner Waren Waiwai running at the New Zealand defence.
Three minutes from time, Thompsen thought he had struck the winner, only to be denied by a fingertip save from Glen Moss.
Vanuatu ended the game with 10 players after Geoffrey Gete was sent off for a bad tackle on Matthew Wilson.
New Zealand 3 (T Lochhead 42, S Smeltz 51, B Fisher 62) Vanuatu 2 (J Maleb 9, L Thompsen). HT: 1-2.
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