The OlyWhites have defeated Guinea in their opening group match at the Paris Olympics.
Captain Matthew Garbett and Ben Waine scored New Zealand’s goal in the 2-1 victory at Allianz Riviera in Nice on Wednesday (Thursday NZ Time).
LATEST HEADLINES:
In a good team effort, Alex Paulsen was kept busy in goal but gave a commendable performance as Guinea had 10 shots on goal, while New Zealand had seven.
Garbett missed a penalty in the 23rd minute after Sam Sutton had been bought down. However, Garnett came back two minutes later when he scored off a poor clearing kick.
New Zealand received a critical let-off in the 61st minute when a goal to Guinea was ruled out after a VAR review, which detected an off-side player in the build-up.
Guinea’s Aliou Balde had come in from the right and taken advantage of a stumble by defender Boxall to slam the ball past Paulsen.
Guinea got on the scoresheet with the equaliser after 72 minutes, before Ben Waine scored the winner two minutes later after some good build up.
It was the second-ever win for the New Zealand side in the Olympics.
New Zealand's next Group C match is against the United States in Marseille on Saturday (5am Sunday NZT).
OlyWhites 2 (Matthew Garbett 25’, Ben Waine 76’) Guinea 1 (Amadou Diawara 72’). HT: 1-0