All Whites coach Danny Hay was pleased with his first outing in charge of the national team but a very different line-up is likely to take the field against Lithuania in the early hours of Monday morning (NZT).

Hay’s side fell to the Republic of Ireland 3-1 in Dublin three days ago but took the lead with a stunning team goal and showed many glimpses of the attack-minded philosophy the new boss is looking to implement.

There were impressive debuts for four players – with Joe Bell, Callum McCowatt and Elijah Just all starting and Elliot Collier making a late cameo – while Ryan Thomas also stood out with an assured midfield display and goalkeeper Stefan Marinovic made several fine saves.  

Many of the players who performed so well may not feature in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius however as Hay takes the opportunity to see who else will put their hand up to be involved in the upcoming bid to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

“I’m going to give a new group of players and some of the ones that came off the bench a chance,” Hay explains.

“We also lose Winston Reid, Ryan Thomas and Chris Wood now, they all go back to their clubs. You’ve got two of them coming off long-term injuries and then Chris was borderline to play against Ireland so we’re sending him back to Burnley just to make sure that we maintain a good relationship there.”

The absence of that experienced trio will give further opportunities to others but they will have a tough assignment on their hands in meeting Lithuania, who are ranked 11 places lower than New Zealand but are regularly exposed to a high level of competition.

The quality they often come up against was underlined in their most recent Euro 2020 qualifier against Portugal, in which Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat-trick as Lithuania were outclassed 6-0.

“The reality is that they’re in Europe and have got players based there playing at a professional level. And the game is on artificial turf which poses another challenge – that’s another reason why we can’t risk the likes of Winston, Chris or Ryan with what they’ve been through recently.”

The match could be a clash of contrasting styles with Hay’s possession-based preference coming up against a less-cultured approach.

“They’re quite direct and robust, they’re a very big side. A little bit like Ireland, it’s going to be a massive challenge for our players in how they step up and deal with the physical side of the game and how much they’re prepared to fight.”

The bold new direction in which Hay is looking to take the All Whites was best encapsulated by McCowatt’s goal against Ireland, Thomas and Wood combining at the end of a flowing move to release fullback Liberato Cacace, who laid on an inch-perfect cross for his Wellington Phoenix team mate to convert on debut.

“I was very pleased with the way that goal was scored and I guess it was best summed up by Chris Wood coming up to me after the game and saying he’s never been involved in an All Whites team that’s played like that. The goal was symptomatic of our best moments but there were plenty of others as well,” Hay says.

“We’ll learn a lot from a few mistakes, we knew that Ireland were going to be really strong at set piece time and with their deliveries into the box so it was disappointing to concede two goals that way. But those are easy things we can fix, the difficult part is the build-up – how you play and the inter-changes and we’ve shown we’re very capable of doing that,” he adds.

“It’s the first little step and another set of players will now get the opportunity to show what they’re capable of against Lithuania.”

Match Details

Lithuania vs New Zealand
Sunday 17 November, 4pm (Monday 18 November, 3am NZT)
Lithuania National Stadium, Vilnius
Live on Sky Sport

New Zealand (from): 1. Stefan Marinovic (GK), 3. Liberato Cacace, 4. Nando Pijnaker, 5. Michael Boxall, 6. Bill Tuiloma, 7. Joe Bell, 8. Michael McGlinchey, 10. Sarpreet Singh, 11. Marco Rojas, 12. Callum McCowatt, 13. James McGarry, 15. Andre de Jong, 16. Tim Payne, 17. Max Mata, 18. Elliot Collier, 19. Alex Rufer, 20. Tommy Smith, 21. Storm Roux, 22. Elijah Just, 23. Matt Ridenton, 24. Michael Woud (GK)
Coach: Danny Hay

Article added: Sunday 17 November 2019