City onslaught secures win

Auckland City have opened their 2016 OFC Champions League campaign in emphatic fashion, beating Solomon Warriors 4-0 in a second-half onslaught at Albany’s QBE Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

The Solomon Islanders pressed hard from the start with Kensi Tangis and Gibson Daudau looking particularly threatening on the counter attack. Auckland also had their chances through Micah Lea’alafa and Darren White but the Warriors keeper Anthony Talo read the game brilliantly well, keeping the Navy Blues scoreless going into the half-time interval. In the second half, the chances came promptly for the defending champions with Emiliano Tade breaking down the left and cutting on to his right foot but blasting his effort straight at Talo after 47 minutes. The Solomon Islanders' resistance finally came to an end in the 54th minute when Daewook Kim headed home an Emiliano Tade corner. The Navy Blues appeared to have sealed the points in the 74th minute when a miracle cut back from Takuya Iwata found substitute Joao Moreira who tapped into an empty net to double the Navy Blues' lead. Moreira had his second in the 85th minute when he went one-on-one with Talo and slot past the Solomon Islands futsal international to give his side a 3-0 lead. In the final minute of time added on, Moreira completed his hat-trick after being set up by debutant Nicolai Berry, who came down the right side of the box to find Moreira. The Portuguese striker tapped home in what proved to be the final act of the match as Auckland wrapped up their 4-0 victory. Navy Blues head coach Ramon Tribulietx was satisfied with the number of chances his team managed to create but was frustrated with their inability to put away simple chances. “I think we managed to create a lot of chances, even in the first half we went through their high back line three or four times but we didn’t make the right decisions," he said. "We had three or four consecutive chances and we didn’t really capitalise on them. Overall, I think we played a consistent game again but it’s always difficult to play the first game so we will deal with the result.” The Navy Blues' next match is on Wednesday afternoon against Papua New Guinean champions Lae City Dwellers at QBE Stadium Oval, kicking off at 3:30pm.

2016 OFC Champions League schedule

http://www.oceaniafootball.com/ofc/Competitions/ScheduleResults/tabid/1015/Competition/957fc72b-5ddf-493b-9ff4-4386f8e436e6/language/en-US/Default.aspx