23 Apr 2016

Auckland City Champions of Oceania

6:11 pm on 23 April 2016

Two goals from Micah Lea'alafa have helped Auckland City to a comprehensive 3-0 defeat of Team Wellington in the final of the Oceania Champions League.

Auckland City coach Ramon Tribulietx and captain Angel Luis Viña Berlanga pose with the OFC trophy.

Auckland City coach Ramon Tribulietx and captain Angel Luis Viña Berlanga pose with the OFC trophy. Photo: Photosport

It was the second year in a row the two New Zealand teams had met in the final, with the victory giving Auckland their sixth successive OFC title.

Lea'alafa scored in just the second minute of the game at North Harbour Stadium and the shell shocked Wellingtonians were lucky to limp to half-time just a goal down.

Auckland's second came in the 67th minute from Clayton Lewis, before the Solomon Islands star, Lea'alafa, sealed the victory with his second, six minutes from full-time.

Micah Lea'alafa

Micah Lea'alafa Photo: Photosport

"It's been a good campaign but it's difficult to think about that at the moment," said Team Wellington captain Bill Robertson

"Obviously, we're hugely disappointed with the result today. Our first-half performance was poor and we never really recovered from that," he added.

"Fair play to Auckland City, I think they deserved it today and were the better side so congratulations to them."

Opposing captain Angel Berlanga was delighted to have booked a return to the world stage, especially after losing to Team Wellington in this year's final of the New Zealand Premiership.

"We are really happy because there has been so much hard work from the team and the staff - now we are going to Japan again," he said.

"We knew it was going to be hard and we were really disappointed after losing our last final against them. So we had to pick things up from there and we played a really intense game."

Auckland City coach Ramon Tribulietx is thrown skyward by in celebration.

Auckland City coach Ramon Tribulietx is thrown skyward by in celebration. Photo: Photosport

There was further glory for Lea'alafa when he picked up the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player while the Team Wellington keeper, Scott Basalaj, earned some consolation in receiving the Golden Gloves.

The Fair Play Award for this year's tournamnet went to Papua New Guinea's Hekari United.

Auckland City have now won the Oceania Champions League a record eight times and will represent the region at December's FIFA Club World Cupin Japan.