Bilums one game away from World Cup

Papua New Guinea coach Ericson Komeng. FIFA Women's World Cup Qualifiers 2027, OFC Qualifiers, Semi Finals Press Conference, OFC Home of Football, Auckland, Friday 10 April 2026. Photo: Blake Armstrong / www.phototek.nz

The PNG National Women's Football team, the PNG Bilums are one game away from qualifying for the FIFA Women's World Cup schedule for next year in Brazil.

The OFC’s direct automatic qualification spot will be decided tomorrow night when they take on New Zealand at North Harbour Stadium in Auckland in the Oceania Qualifiers final.

After winning their respective semi-finals at FMG Stadium in Hamilton on Saturday – Papua New Guinea defeating American Samoa 1-0, and New Zealand beating Fiji 5-0 both sides are expected to deliver a strong and entertaining match.

The winner will qualify, whilst the loser will get a second chance through the intercontinental play-offs.

The Bilums are familiar with this stage of the qualifying process but will be attempting to get past the final hurdle for the first time on Wednesday night and qualify for their inaugural FIFA Women’s World Cup™.

“It's exciting for the last few days - the girls are happy to get there. They know themselves they've been working so hard and to get here is a big bonus for them and we're looking forward for the game tomorrow.” said Bilums Head coach Ericson Komeng.

“The girls deserve to be here. They've been working so hard for the last couple of months, playing a tough team like New Zealand, we just have to focus on ourselves and how we can compete and play a good final tomorrow.”

Papua New Guinea have finished as runners-up to OFC’s direct qualification spot on three previous occasions and lost to Panama 2-0 during the intercontinental play-offs at the last qualifying campaign for the 2023 finals.