Papua New Guinea intend to embrace the pressure of home advantage when the Oceania Nations Cup football competitions kicks off this weekend.
PNG's preparations suffered a setback when their three-match tour of Korea was cancelled, with the team instead holding a two-week training camp in Lae.
Their last international was a 2-1 win over Solomon Islands in March and head coach Flemming Serrtislev is backing his team to perform on home soil.
"This is the pressure you have to deal with. Anyhow, in my opinion, it should be a big advantage to play at home. It's up to us to get the spectators - our fans - behind us by doing very hard work, by playing good football," he said.
"I'm very confident about the squad that I have here. I have, in my own opinion, very good players, very committed players. They are really playing like a team, they are standing together like a team so I'm pretty sure we will do good results in this Nations Cup."
Former Denmark assistant Flemming Serritslev has been appointed coach of the PNG men's football team. Photo: PNG Football Association
The Oceania champions will qualify for next year's Confederations Cup while the top six teams will progress to the next stage of FIFA World Cup qualifying.
PNG are the lowest ranked team in the Nations Cup at 198 in the world but Flemming Serrtislev said they will take it game by game and do the best they can.
Their first match is against New Caledonia at Sir John Guise Stadium on Sunday.
