The Digicel Fiji Bula Boys finished in fourth position at the 2024 Oceania Football Confederation Men’s Nations Cup going down to Tahiti 2-1 in the third-place playoff in Vautatu yesterday.
Fiji coach Rob Sherman opted to give game time to his players, who had mostly spent time on the bench during the tournament.
It was a lackluster first spell where both teams failed to create any good goal scoring chances.
Fiji’s captain Roy Krishna came off the bench at half-time and made an immediate impact.
Playing in his 57th appearance for Fiji, Krishna dribbled past the Tahitian goal keeper to slot in Fiji’s first, and his goal number 41 in the national colours.
It was a captains show as Krishna’s Tahitian counterpart Teaonui Tehau scored two goals in 11 second half minutes to deny Fiji the bronze medal.
Sherman says the World Cup Qualifiers later this year remains his main focus.
“We wanted to give an opportunity to all players in this match so that we can also see how they perform under pressure.
The focus remains the World Cup Qualifiers and we will work towards that,” Sherman said. The pool stage of the qualifiers will be held in October in Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. The semi-finals and final will be played early next year.
The winner of the qualifier will get an automatic qualification to the 2026 FIFA World Cup while the runner-up will contest in the next stage of the qualifiers.
Meanwhile, New Zealand beat hosts Vanuatu 3-0 in the final.
