Marist to take on Nalkutan and Warriors set for Auckland City
By CARLOS ARUAFU
Telekom S-league champions and runner up, Solomon Warriors FC and Marist FC have been made known their opponents for the Oceania Champions League quarter finals.
Solomon Warriors again find themselves on the road as they will travel to New Zealand to play reigning champions Auckland City FC at Kiwitea Street.
Marist will be on the road for the first time after hosting their group at Lawson Tama in the past two weeks.
They will take on Group A winners Nalkutan FC scheduled to be hosted in Port Villa, Vanuatu.
Team Wellington, who topped Group D in Honiara over the weekend will welcome Papua New Guinea club champions and Group A runners-up Lae City Dwellers to Wellington.
AS Dragon, who won their group on home soil, will once again enjoy home advantage when they take on Fiji club Lautoka FC who finished behind Auckland City in Group C.
The competition returns next month.
The official draw was held yesterday at the OFC Academy in Auckland, New Zealand, outlining the quarter final match-ups, the semi-finals and finals for this year’s edition of Oceania’s premier international club competition.
According to the OFC media, the OFC Competitions Director Chris Kemp said following four entertaining groups, the knockout stage of the OFC Champions League 2018 is also set to delight fans.
Adding intrigue to this year’s competition for fans is the semi-final and final.
After two years of the same four semi-finalists and three editions of Auckland City and Team Wellington in the final, yesterday’s draw, and the earlier elimination of AS Magenta of New Caledonia, ensured this won’t be the case in 2018.
One of the semi-finals will feature the winners of quarter finals one and two – the two which feature the New Zealand teams. Meaning should they beat their respective opponents in the one-off quarter final matches at home, they would then meet in the semi-finals.
The other semi-final will feature the winners of the match between Dragon and Lautoka, and Nalkutan and Marist.
Finally, the winner of semi-final 2 will get the first leg of the final played at home, before travelling to their opponent’s ground for the second leg which will take place in May.