Papua New Guinea have secured fifth place at OFC U-19 Men’s Championship 2026 with an impressive 4-0 victory over Fiji at Samoa Football HQ in Apia.  

Coming off the back of a heavy 7-0 loss to New Caledonia in their final group match, Christopher Eugene scored twice for Papua New Guinea as they finished on a high against a much-changed Fijian side in the play-off for fifth place.  

It took just five minutes for Nalau Moses to score the opener, running onto a long ball over the top of the Fijian defence and calmly rolling the ball into the bottom-left corner with only the goalkeeper to beat.  

The first of Eugene’s two goals was a stunning half-volley into the top-left corner from outside the box on his left foot in the 23rd minute, before Milis tapped home the third from a cross into the box just before half-time.  

Marika Rodu made seven changes to the Fijian squad for their final match of the tournament, with Bula FC duo Maikah Dau and Delon Shankar both missing. Having had their semi-final hopes extinguished on the final matchday in Group B four days earlier, they delivered a deflated performance.  

Eugene wrapped up the win for Papua New Guinea with his second midway through the second half, capitalising on an errant rebound in the box to pick out the top-left corner again with a first-time finish.  

The result is Papua New Guinea’s first-ever victory over Fiji at the OFC U-19 Men’s Championship (having first met at the tournament back in 1978), and a significant achievement given they had to come through the qualifying tournament to make the championship in Samoa this year. 

Papua New Guinea: 4 (Nalau MOSES 5’, Christopher EUGENE 23’, 67’, John MILIS 45+5’)
Fiji: 0 

HT: 3-0  

Later in the day, Lomitusi Scanlan scored a second half hat-trick as Samoa claimed seventh place with a 3-1 win over Vanuatu.  

Scanlan scored all three goals in the final 13 minutes of regulation time, leading the tournament hosts to their first win of the campaign in their final match, and earning the player of the match award for his solo heroics.  

A penalty shoot-out appeared to be on the cards when the contest entered the final quarter without a breakthrough, but Scanlan and his strike partner Javier Arratia-Pio had other ideas. The pair combined for two of the three goals, Scanlan breaking the deadlock in the 77th minute, after being set up by Arratia-Pio.  

He nodded the ball over the head of onrushing Vanuatu goalkeeper Jesse Thomas from outside the box for the second, before completing his hat-trick in the 90th minute with the help of Arratia-Pio in the build-up again.  

Vanuatu did at least finish with a consolation, Paul Takaro finding the top-right corner with a stunning long-range effort in the dying embers of the game.  

The result also means that Vanuatu will have to participate in the qualifying tournament when the next edition of the OFC U-19 Men’s Championship is played in 2028 under the current forma, for finishing eighth place. 

Samoa: 3 (Lomitusi SCANLAN 77’, 83’, 90’)
Vanuatu: 1 (Paul TAKARO 90+5’)

HT: 0-0
Photo credit: OFC Media via Phototek