Beat Fiji, New Caledonians Told

The New Caledonia football players have been told to beat the Digicel Fijian side in their FIFA World Cup qualifying clash in Qatar on March 18.

New Caledonia head coach, Dominique Wa­calie said, although they’re expecting a physi­cal battle, beating the Fijians, is going to take a lot of pressure off them.

This is before New Caledonia face Papua New Guinea and favourites New Zealand in their Group matches.

“I know it’s going to be tough, as we know every team’s value and their qualities,” he said.

“For the first match against Fiji we don’t want to put any extra pressure on ourselves, as we already know that winning the first match is an ideal start to a tournament.

“Getting off to a good start is essential for all teams in the competi­tion.”

Wacalie said a lot of work has been put in to ensure his group are in the best shape possible come kick off against Fiji.

“The only way to describe what it’s been like for us without competitions is brutal. We start­ed off with a large list of 58 players, seven of those were overseas meaning we had 51 local players to work with. It’s been high pressure stuff for us since the start.

“We had put our players through intense phys­ical sessions, our staff gave up a lot of their time and I believe that we have done all we can to make up for lost time.”

Meanwhile, the Fijian football side took a break after their first training session on Mon­day.

Head coach Flemming Serritslev said they are taking on things as it come as they await their warm-up matches against Vanuatu and a local football club.

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