The New Zealand women's football side will take on Papua New Guinea in a home-and-away playoff starting at the end of the month for a place at the London Olympics.
Papua New Guinea beat Tonga 2-0 in the final of the Oceania women's Olympic qualifiers to earn a date withthe Football Ferns but New Zealand should have little trouble qualifying for the 12-team tournament in London.
They have never been beaten by a side from the Pacific Islands and thumped Papua New Guinea 11-0 in their last outing in the final of the Oceania World Cup qualifiers in October 2010 to earn a place in Germany. Their match in Port Moresby in 2008 was much tighter but New Zealand still won 2-0 to earn a place at the Beijing Olympics.
The first leg of the playoff will be played in New Zealand on March 31 and the return leg in Papua New Guinea on April 4.
New Zealand coach Tony Readings will want to bring his strongest side home for the match to use as valuable preparations for the Olympics. They finished eighth at the recent Cyprus Cup but were unbeaten after a win over Northern Ireland and draws with South Africa, South Korea and the Netherlands.
"I am happy to have won but we have a lot to work on,'' Papua New Guinea coach Steven Mune said. "We now have to play New Zealand and they are a very good side so it's not going to be easy. They will really come at us so we have to make sure we are ready. We will have to work on our defence particularly because New Zealand are likely to attack us time and time again.''
