5 Apr 2012

Sport: NZ women thrash PNG to qualify for Olympic football tournament

10:31 am on 5 April 2012

The New Zealand women's football team will represent Oceania at the London Olympics after thrashing Papua New Guinea 7-0 in the second leg of their qualifying final on Wednesday.

That saw the Football Ferns advance 15-0 on aggregate following their 8-0 win in the first leg on Saturday.

Head coach Tony Readings says his team played well in extremely testing conditions in Port Moresby.

"The conditions here were definitely a lot more trying than they were on Saturday. The heat was scorching today and the pitch was very trying, very uneven surface. We're just really proud of the way the players performed - all they can do is go out there and try and be the best they can be for the full duration of the game and with one minute to go they're still pushing."

Papua New Guinea coach Steven Mune says his team had a number of chances but lacked composure in front on attack and were guilty of giving New Zealand too much room to move the ball around.

The Football Ferns will join their male counterparts, the Oly Whites, at the Olympic Games, who qualified last month.