Preparations for Fiji and Samoa continued last week with the second of two friendly matches between the two sides seeing the Qualifier winners come out 2-0 winners.

The two sides are preparing for this month’s OFC Women’s Nations Cup, the regional qualifying tournament for the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019 and the Olympic Games 2020.

Fiji coach Marika Rodu said the two matches against Samoa served their purpose well as his side were able to see where they sit compared with one of Oceania’s top seven sides ahead of the big showdown in New Caledonia, winning both games 5-0 and 2-0 respectively.

“Definitely while we wanted to win the friendlies,” Rodu stated.

“At the same time we swapped players around as we really worked hard in the last few days. Despite the low scoring margin in the second game we are still optimistic of how we want the girls to play.”

Rodu was positive about the strides the side has made since qualifying for the final tournament, and although believes there are areas to continue working on the players are all devoted to the objective.

“There were a lot of mistakes in our last game but it’s something that we are open to and hopefully they will build on this game and come back focused in the camp.

“All I can guarantee is that it is going to be tough. We’ll keep pushing the girls, target them mentally, technically and try to push them physically to the limit. We’ll be keeping track of their performances, discussing things with them.

“At the moment there are some grey areas within their performance, especially decision-making, but we would like to see that those things are cleared out before the Nations Cup.”

Fiji join Tonga, Cook Islands and defending champions New Zealand in Group B which will be played at Stade Numa Daly in Noumea. The competition kicks off on 18 November, with the final scheduled for 1 December.