Papua New Guinea coach David Muta admitted that Fiji was a better side in their 2-0 loss in the all-important match of the OFC Men’s Olympic Qualifier 2023 in Auckland, New Zealand on Saturday.
“Congratulations to Fiji. They deserve the win,” Muta told FijiLive
“They played really structured and organised football.”
“Fiji came out a better side. They played really well.”
Muta said the PNG players lacked confidence in themselves which resulted in the loss.
“Fijians played pressured football with our players and we need more time to play to get that level of confidence in them. We did not have the confidence and that’s why we didn’t finish the goals.”
“Our boys lost confidence in themselves and they made a lot of mistakes. Confidence is something we have to teach them to be strong. They need to start believing in themselves.”
While PNG will take the loss as a lesson, Muta added they will shift the focus towards the upcoming Pacific Games in Solomon Islands later this year.
“Our preparation was very short but I give credit to all their players who played their hearts out in the short time and they played really strong until the final whistle.”
“We have a lot to learn from the Fiji game and we’ll assess the video footage to see where our major weaknesses were and how we can work together as a team to improve before the Pacific Games.”
