OFC Women's Olympic Qualifying - Stage Two

Oceania's representative at the Olympic Games Women's Football Tournament will be decided in a two-legged playoff between Papua New Guinea - winners of the XIII South Pacific Games - Samoa 2007 gold medal - and New Zealand, who was seeded directly into the playoff berth.

The winner of the playoff will be awarded direct entry to Beijing 2008.

New Zealand will head into the fixtures as hot favorites but will face a Papua New Guinea team who achieved its highest ever placing at an OFC/FIFA World Cup Qualifying event last year when it finished runners-up to New Zealand.

Papua New Guinea qualified for an Olympic Games showdown with the Football Ferns after winning the gold medal at the XIII South Pacific Games Women’s Football Tournament in Samoa last year.

Papua New Guinea defeated Tonga 3-1 after extra-time to secure the South Pacific Games gold medal and clinch the Olympic Games qualifying berth against New Zealand.

New Zealand were seeded to the playoff stage and did not compete at the XIII South Pacific Games – Samoa 2007.

Women's football has been debuted at the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996 with USA winning the gold medal match against China, 2-1. Norway sealed the bronze medal with a 2-0 victory over Brazil.

Four years later in Sydney, Norway won through in the gold medal match after defeating USA in a nailbiting 3-2 thriller. Germany won bronze after defeating Brazil 2-0. Oceania Football Confederation representatives and host nation Australia, finished bottom of their group featuring Germany, Brazil and Sweden.

Australia were again OFC's representatives at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 where they sealed a quarter-final berth before succumbing 2-1 to Sweden.