2018 OFC Women's Nations Cup

2018 OFC Women's Nations Cup
Coupe d'Océanie féminine de football 2018
Tournament details
Host country	New Caledonia
Dates	18 November – 1 December
Teams	8 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	4 (in 4 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	New Zealand (6th title)
Runners-up	Fiji
Third place	Papua New Guinea
Fourth place	New Caledonia
Tournament statistics
Matches played	16
Goals scored	108 (6.75 per match)
Attendance	5,247 (328 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Sarah Gregorius; Meagen Gunemba; (8 goals each)
Best player(s)	Betsy Hassett
Best goalkeeper	Adi Tuwai
Fair play award	New Zealand
	← 2014 2022 →

The 2018 OFC Women's Nations Cup was the 11th edition of the OFC Women's Nations Cup (also known as the OFC Women's Championship), the quadrennial international football championship organised by the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) for the women's national teams of the Oceanian region. The tournament was held in New Caledonia between 18 November – 1 December 2018.

The tournament served as the Oceanian qualifiers to the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, with the champions qualifying for the World Cup in France.^[1] The champions also qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics women's football tournament in Japan.^[2]^[3]

New Zealand were the defending champions. They won the tournament for their fourth consecutive and sixth overall OFC Women's Nations Cup title.

Format

The format was as follows:

Qualifying stage: The four lowest-ranked teams based on previous regional performances of all women's national teams (American Samoa, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji) entered the qualifying stage, which was held from 24 to 30 August 2018 in Fiji (originally scheduled to be held in American Samoa).^[4]^[2] The winner qualified for the final tournament, joining the other seven teams which automatically qualified.
Final tournament: A total of eight teams played in the final tournament, which was held between 18 November to 1 December 2018 in New Caledonia.^[2] For the group stage, they are divided into two groups of four teams. The top two teams of each group advance to the knockout stage (semi-finals and final) to decide the winner of the OFC Women's Nations Cup that qualify for the FIFA Women's World Cup as well as the Olympic football tournament.

The draw for the tournament was held on 21 March 2018 at the OFC Headquarters in Auckland, New Zealand.^[5] In both the qualifying stage and final tournament, the hosts (Fiji and New Caledonia) were assigned to position A1 in the draw, while the remaining teams were drawn into the other positions without any seeding.^[6]

Tiebreakers

The ranking of teams is determined as follows:^[7]

Points obtained in all qualifying matches;
Goal difference in all qualifying matches;
Number of goals scored in all qualifying matches;
Points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question;
Goal difference in the matches played between the teams in question;
Number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question;
Fair play points in all qualifying matches (only one deduction can be applied to a player in a single match):
- Yellow card: –1 points;
- Indirect red card (second yellow card): –3 points;
- Direct red card: –4 points;
- Yellow card and direct red card: –5 points;
Coin toss or drawing of lots.

Qualification

For the first time, the OFC Women's Nations Cup is a compulsory tournament, so all 11 OFC member national teams have entered the tournament.^[4]

Team	Method of qualification	Appearance	Previous best performance	FIFA ranking at start of event^[8]
Cook Islands	Automatic	4th	Third place (2010, 2014)	Not ranked
New Caledonia		2nd	Third place (1983)	Not ranked
New Zealand		11th	Champions (1983, 1991, 2007, 2010, 2014)	20
Papua New Guinea		9th	Runners-up (2007, 2010, 2014)	Not ranked
Samoa		3rd	Fourth place (2003)	Not ranked
Tahiti		2nd	Group stage (2010)	Not ranked
Tonga		4th	Third place (2007)	Not ranked
Fiji	Qualification winners	4th	Fourth place (1983, 1998)	81

Note: New Caledonia and Tahiti are not members of the International Olympic Committee and thus not eligible to qualify for the Olympic Football Tournament.

Venues

The host nation of the final tournament was New Caledonia. The matches were played at four venues.^[9]

Koné	Nouméa	Koné Nouméa Lifou Maré	Lifou	Maré
Stade Yoshida	Stade Numa-Daly Magenta		Stade de Hnassé	Stade de la Roche
Capacity: 3,000	Capacity: 16,000		Capacity: 1,680	Capacity: 1,500

Squads

Each team can name a maximum of 23 players.^[10]

Group stage

The top two teams of each group advance to the semi-finals.

All times are local, NCT (UTC+11).^[10]

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Papua New Guinea	3	3	0	0	14	3	+11	9	Knockout stage
2	New Caledonia (H)	3	2	0	1	8	8	0	6	Knockout stage
3	Tahiti	3	0	1	2	8	12	−4	1
4	Samoa	3	0	1	2	5	12	−7	1

Source: OFC
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

18 November 2018

14:00

Samoa	0–5	Papua New Guinea
	Report	M. Gunemba 17', 22', 53' Gabong 27' Bauelua 90+2'

Stade Yoshida, Koné

Attendance: 150

Referee: Nadia Browning (New Zealand)

18 November 2018