New Zealand's Junior Ferns kicked off their "Road To Poland" campaign in style on September 22, sweeping aside host nation Tahiti 7-0 at Stade Paea in Papeete in their first match at the 2025 OFC U-19 Women's Championship. Callum Holmes' charges tore into their opponents from the first whistle, with Emily Lyon shooting straight at Ohotonui Bonnet after Mackenzie Greene, Lily Brazendale and Zoe Benson combined to set up their team-mate in the third minute. Sixty seconds later, Grace Bartlett buccaneered down the right before picking out Benson with her cross. Her lay-off invited Charlotte Mortlock to let fly from twenty yards, but Bonnet was equal to the challenge. The goalkeeper was gifted an easy save by Lily Brazendale in the sixth minute, the unmarked beneficiary of Lyon's cross on the run directing her header straight at Bonnet, who was well pleased to see Brazendale butcher another opportunity three minutes later, blazing wildly over the bar. This mirrored a Lyon volley moments earlier, Bartlett the creator of that opening, while it was Poppy O'Brien's turn to shine in the eleventh minute, wriggling through challenges before drawing a parried save from Bonnet. The rebound broke for Brazendale, but she steered it wide with the 'keeper helpless. But from the resulting goal kick, the striker finally got the mix right - if she'd missed the twelfth minute tap-in she was gifted by Lyon's right wing raid, the howls of derision emanating from those watching FIFA+ coverage back home may well have been audible in Tahiti's capital. The Junior Ferns wasted little time in doubling their lead, their second goal coming in the fourteenth minute. Lyon's driving run was central to a move which also featured Mortlock, who evaded a challenge before letting rip. Bonnet blocked it brilliantly, but Mortlock swooped on the rebound and battered the ball into the roof of the net - 2-0. Brazendale squandered another opening in the nineteenth minute, this one arising from the contributions of Mackenzie Longmuir and Benson, while Bonnet smothered a deflected drive from Lyon two minutes later, Benson, Brazendale and Bartlett having combined to good effect. The Junior Ferns' intensity in the opening quarter of the game was far too much for Tahiti to handle, and after Benson hit the post, Longmuir and Lyon combined to pick out O'Brien, who cleverly evaded two challenges before unleashing a teasing chipped effort which Bonnet prevented from finding the top far corner of the net in the 28th minute. Tahiti were offering nothing of note in attack on the

bumpy playing surface, on which the Junior Ferns conjured up two more goals before the half-time whistle, the first of them in the 37th minute. Lyon swooped on a stray pass and fair battered a twenty-five yard volley into the far corner of the net - 3-0. Make that 4-0 in the 44th minute, and it was a howler from Bonnet's perspective. Benson drove inside off the right flank before unleashing a twenty-yarder which the goalkeeper gathered, then promptly let through her legs, the ball's momentum taking it over the line, and leaving Bonnet wishing that the ground would open up and swallow her. The Junior Ferns scored their fifth goal four minutes into the second spell. A Benson corner wasn't cleared, and Bartlett drilled it back into the danger zone, where Brazendale deftly redirected it into the opposite corner of the net. Tahiti offered far more resistance in this half, and fired their first shots in anger in the 52nd and 54th minutes, long-range free-kicks from captain Haranui Le Gayic which troubled Brooke Neary little. In between times, Brazendale spurned yet another opportunity to add to New Zealand's tally, blazing wildly over with just Bonnet to beat, having been played in by Benson, whose 64th minute corner wasn't cleared, much to the delight of Mary Brown - the substitute volleyed home from six yards for 6-0. The remaining chances in the match saw the spotlight falling on O'Brien, who was unmarked in the 73rd minute when Brown, Lyon and Benson combined to present her with a glorious chance. Somehow she shot straight at Bonnet when scoring seemed easier. Substitute Amber De Wit, via a corner and a through ball, engineered openings for her mercurial team-mate in the final six minutes. O'Brien's shot was blocked on the first occasion, while she chipped narrowly over on the other. But when the roles were reversed in the 89th minute, O'Brien's pass invited De Wit to unleash an angled chip which beat Bonnet all ends up and clinched a dominant 7-0 victory for the Junior Ferns, their first win on the road to Poland and the 2026 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup Finals. Tahiti:          Bonnet; Tepou-Atger, Teupooteharuru (booked, 40), Puhetini, Neuffer (Taae, 46); H. Brothers, Kautai (Nekrouf, 46), M. Brothers (Graffe, 69), Teikihaa (Masingue, 69), Tahutini (Leodolter, 46); Le Gayic (booked, 79) Junior Ferns:     Neary; Longmuir (Dunn, 80), Eglinton, Greene; Bartlett (Brown, 61), D. Brazendale (Brill, 77), Mortlock (De Wit, 61), O'Brien; Lyon, Benson (Cleall-Harding, 80), L. Brazendale Referee:     Azusa Sugino (Japan)