New Zealand coach Leon Birnie says he wants his team “to be more clinical, more ruthless” in their remaining games at the OFC U-17 Women’s Championship.
His comments were made after New Zealand routed Papua New Guinea 11-0 in their Pool B game at the tournament in Fiji.
“I think we’ve got a long way to go to get to the standards that we expect as a group,” Birnie said.
“There were some good little passages out there and then there was areas that I think we need to keep working on and the girls know that and we’re just going to try and get better and better as the tournament goes on.
“I think we’ve just got to be more clinical, more ruthless, and when we get into little moments where we can capitalize.
“That would be the focus going into the next game.”
As for the tournament itself, Birnie said:
“The girls are loving it, and we’ve had a lot of time to kind of get our culture right off the field, and hopefully, in the next few games, you see that transpire onto the field as well.”
The winner of the OFC U-19 Women’s Championship will gain automatic qualification to the 2024 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.
New Zealand’s next game will be a quarter-final on Saturday, against whichever team finishes second in Group C.
READ MORE: New Zealand cruise into quarter-finals with 11-0 win against Papua New Guinea >>>>
STREAM: How to watch all 20 games at the OFC U-19 Women’s Championship >>>>
Watch Leon Birnie’s interview
Group standings
Group A
Group B
Group C
More about the OFC U-19 Women’s Championship
READ MORE: Our previous stories about the OFC U-19 Women’s Championship >>>>
READ MORE: Match report from New Zealand’s opening game against Fiji >>>>
