The Digicel Kulas women’s football team will play Cook Islands in the quarter-finals of the 2022 Oceania Football Confederation Women’s Nations Cup on Sunday.
Fiji topped its pool with four points and will play a plucky Cooks team which has showed glimpses of brilliance in their pool matches.
The two teams met in a friendly match before the start of the tournament which Fiji won 4-1.
Fiji Football Association chief executive officer Mohammed Yusuf said the competition was expected to get tougher in the knockout stages.
“Many of these players haven’t played international competitive football for a very long time and it took them time to settle in,” he said.
“After the first two matches, many teams would have adjusted to the competition and come the quarter-finals, they should be a better team,” Yusuf said.
He said Fiji’s aim was to qualify to the next stage.
“The aim is to finish in the top two and to qualify for the next stage of the qualifiers. This is something the girls are aware of and we are confident that they can achieve the goal that has been set.”
The quarter-finals will be played tomorrow and Sunday at Suva’s HFC Bank Stadium.
New Caledonia will face Group A winners Samoa at 4pm tomorrow before Papua New Guinea battles Tonga at 7.30pm.
Fiji plays the Cook Islands at 4pm on Sunday before Tahiti battles the Solomon Islands at 7.30pm.
