Lautoka defender Ilaitia Tuilau in control against Auckland City at the Trusts Stadium, Auckland, New Zealand on March 3, 2018. Photo: OFC Media
Auckland City FC confirmed themselves as the winners of Group C in the OFC Champions League and booked a home quarterfinal with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Lautoka at Trusts Stadium in Auckland yesterday.
The defending champions will now host Papua New Guinea’s Lae City Dwellers or one of the Solomon Islands teams of Solomon Warriors or Marist when the draw for the April 7-8 quarterfinals is made tomorrow at OFC headquarters.
As group runners-up, Lautoka will travel to Papeete, Port Vila or Wellington to face AS Dragon, Nalkutan or Team Wellington – the winners of the other three groups.
Meanwhile in a battle between Group C’s two previously winless teams, Tahiti’s AS Venus edged Madang FC from Papua New Guinea 2-1 to finish the tournament on a relative high note.
It took Auckland City until the 70th minute to break down a well-organised Lautoka defence with Emiliano Tade finally breaking the deadlock from a Daniel Morgan cross.
It was a stark contrast to lop-sided wins in their first two matches with Lautoka offering a sterner test, even after going down to 10- men a few minutes before halftime.
Auckland City coach Ramon Tribulietx was pleased to secure a home quarterfinal and said he expected the match to be as tough as it was, especially after an intense week.
“Lautoka are a good team. They dropped off and parked the bus so that’s always going to make life difficult and they’ve got players that can hurt you on the counter,” Tribulietx said.
“For us it was a matter for keeping dominating with patience, not getting frustrated and just wait to see if we could score one. When we got the goal, and even when they got the player sent off, things changed.”
Lautoka coach Kamal Swamy had to balance the desire to win the match with concerns about a number of players sitting one caution away from missing the quarterfinal but took heart from the way the players he brought in responded.
“Auckland are the defending champions and had the home advantage and of course we missed five key players in the starting line-up because of the yellow cards and the reserves played very well,” said Swamy.
–OFC Media
Feedback: leonec@fijisun.com.fj
