In Group A in Fiji, New Caledonia defeated Papua New Guinea 3-1, and Fiji defeated Solomon Islands 1-0. The teams will play two games in Papua New Guinea in November. In Group B in Vanuatu, New Zealand defeated Tahiti 3-0, and Vanuatu defeated Samoa 4-1. The teams will play two games in New Zealand in November. November will eliminated four teams, and four will advance to the Semifinals and Final in March 2025.
Group A at Papua New Guinea: Solomon Islands 2-3 New Caledonia Papua New Guinea 3-3 Fiji Papua New Guinea scored in the 90+4th, but they did not get to celebrate a lead for long because Fiji scored in the 90+5th. Solomon Islands are eliminated with 0 points. New Caledonia advanced with 6 points. Papua New Guinea (1 point) needs to beat Solomon Islands, have Fiji (4 points) lose to New Caledonia, and win a tiebreaker. That was Matchday 2 of 3, and the last matchday is also this month. https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments...26/articles/ofc-round-two-matchday-two-report is titled "Athale stars as New Caledonia advance." New Caledonia's Joseph Athale scored twice, and he is a defender without a club. A French club was relegated to the fifth level and released him. It was Papua New Guinea's first home game since 2017. https://www.plus.fifa.com/en/player...atalogId=66e4ef9a-aaf6-4db5-8690-6f3dff2b9d9b has highlights of Papua New Guinea vs. Fiji. https://www.plus.fifa.com/en/player...atalogId=9f335284-1d13-40dd-9628-046cad0847a5 has higjhlights of Solomon Islands vs. New Caledonia. There were over 12.5 minutes of stoppage time.
There are odds of 101 to 1 for Samoa to win, 81 to 1 for a draw, and no odds for a New Zealand win because New Zealand is so likely to win that 1.01 to 1 (meaning a 1 percent profit) would be too much profit to give people. Before that, Tahiti plays Vanuatu. One of them advances, the other one is eliminated, Vanuatu must win, and Tahiti is favored.
Group A's Matchday 3 in Papua New Guinea had Fiji 1-1 New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea 1-2 Solomon Islands. That made New Caledonia be first with 7 points and +3, Fiji be second with 5 points and +1, Solomon Islands be third with 3 points and -1, and Papua New Guinea be fourth with 1 point and -3. Group B's Matchday 2 in New Zealand had Samoa 0-3 Tahiti and New Zealand 8-1 Vanuatu. Group B's Matchday 3 in New Zealand had Tahiti 2-0 Vanuatu and New Zealand 8-0 Samoa. That made New Zealand be first with 9 points and +18, Tahiti be second with 6 points and +2, Vanuatu be third with 3 points and -6, and Samoa be fourth with 0 points and -14. Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, and Samoa are eliminated. Four OFC teams are alive and will play the Semifinals on 21 March 2025. The Semifinals and Final are in New Zealand. The first place teams play the second place teams from the other group. New Caledonia plays Tahiti, and New Zealand plays Fiji. The Final is on 24 March. The winner qualifies, and the loser goes a playoff for the last two spots. The playoffs will have six teams competing for two spots. The top two ranked teams, who will not be in OFC, get to skip the first round and need to win one round. The other four teams need to win two rounds. I am assuming the playoffs will be divided into two parts that each have Team A play the winner of Team B vs. Team C.
https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments...s/five-headlines-from-november-ofc-qualifiers is titled "Five headlines from November's OFC qualifiers."
Round 3: Four countries remain and will play a one-legged knockout format (two semis and a final) in New Zealand in March 2025. Semifinals, March 21 New Caledonia vs. Tahiti New Zealand vs. Fiji The winner of the final on March 24 will qualify for the World Cup, losers moving onto the intercontinental playoff.
It seems strange to me to want to finish off the qualifiers in March when there would be plenty of time to run the last 4 as a group stage finishing in September. With the amount of qualifiers going on elsewhere in the world it would be hard to arrange any meaningful friendlies for the teams that qualify in March. Also, it's more than likely that New Zealand at home will win through meaning Fiji has much less chance of making the playoff than the other two.
Final: New Zealand 2-0 over New Caledonia. New Zealand becomes the second team to qualify for the World Cup in Canada, US and Mexico, after Japan. Team number five (after Canada, México and the US, and Japan) New Caledonia is in the playoff group. A good deal of time to prepare and organize the teams for the World Cup games, the playoffs and the finals.