Qualification for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2027™ will be at stake when the semi-finals of the OFC U-16 Women’s Championship 2026 are played in Honiara on Wednesday evening.

New Zealand will play Papua New Guinea in the first semi-final at 4pm local time, before New Caledonia face Fiji at 7pm local time, with the winners to qualify for the global finals in Morocco next year and advance to the continental final.

Ahead of Wednesday's crunch matches, the coaches and captains of the four semi-finalists gathered at the Heritage Park Hotel in Honiara to give their thoughts.

Semi-final 1: New Zealand v Papua New Guinea

National Stadium, Honiara | 4pm local time

Ten years after their last appearance at the OFC U-16 Women’s Championship, Papua New Guinea are back in the semi-finals, a decade after finishing runners-up to New Zealand in the final in 2016.

Their rise back to the top four has been remarkable, having received a late call-up to join the tournament following Tahiti’s withdrawal. They also had to recover from an opening defeat to New Caledonia to sneak into the semi-finals as runners-up from Group B, beating Samoa 2-0 on the final matchday of group-stage action.

Qualifying for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup for the first time will be a whole other challenge, though, and defeating New Zealand is something no nation has achieved previously in tournament history.

The Young Football Ferns have never lost or drawn one of their 31 matches since the inaugural edition of the OFC U-16 Women’s Championship in 2010, winning all seven titles and qualifying for all nine FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cups.

They’ve been dominant again in the Solomon Islands, topping Group A without conceding a goal, despite leaving it late to defeat Fiji 1-0.

As mentioned, these two nations last met in the final in 2016, with New Zealand cruising to an 8-0 victory at the CIFA Academy in the Cook Islands – with Hannah Blake and Jacqui Hand both scoring hat-tricks. Prior to that, the Young Ferns also recorded consecutive 9-0 wins in 2010 and 2012.

With so much on the line, Papua New Guinea will need to produce something extraordinary if they are to end New Zealand’s impressive unbeaten run.

What the coaches said:

New Zealand head coach Alana Gunn said:

"We definitely won't be complacent. We learnt that lesson against Fiji, and we watched Papua New Guinea play their final group-stage match with a lot of passion. The conditions are hard here and the opposition are fierce."

"This match means a lot for Papua New Guinea and we're expecting nothing but a fight. The players are well aware of our history at this tournament, and we don't want to be the first team to lose a match, so it does add pressure. How we manage that is all part of the experience of coming to this tournament."

Papua New Guinea head coach Susan Steven said:

"It means so much to us. The purpose throughout the campaign has been to continually develop the players on and off the field, and now they are into a match that carries a lot of significance for them and the country."

"Most of the players in the team come from our districts in Papua New Guinea, and it's been wonderful for them to come this far. We want to inspire the next generation of girls in our country, and show them that we can compete."