The Cook Islands women’s football side is through to the quarter-finals despite losing their final pool match on Monday night.

Despite the 1-0 loss to Samoa in the OFC Women’s Nations Cup in Suva, Fiji, the Cook Islands national women’s football has earned a spot in the top eight battle.

Finishing second behind the unbeaten Samoa who defeated Tonga 2-0 in the opening pool match last week, the Cook Islands will face the winner of Group C on Sunday, July 24, which will be Fiji unless the Solomon Islands win convincingly against New Caledonia in their final group stage fixture (played last night).

Cook Islands drew with Tonga 1-all in their first match on Friday night.

In the second match, Samoa had secured a 1-0 lead over the Kuki girls in the first half, but the team held their ground to avoid conceding further goals.

Young Cook Islands goalkeeper Kimberly Uini, 15, from Matavera led her backline along with defender Teretia Teinaki, making some daring saves against a superior outfit.

Coming back on the field in the second half, the Cook Islands were eager and took control of the ball in the first few minutes of the 45-minute half.

Samoa made many attempts to extend their lead but fell short.

Cook Islands head coach Gary Phillips said: “Overall I thought we tried to play football. Maybe we lacked a little bit of polish at times but I was happy with the performance.”

“Obviously, at the end, it was about hanging in there and making sure that we don’t concede again.

“To hang in there like they did I am really proud of their effort.”

Samoa head coach Paul Ifill said: “I think it was a compliment to us at the end that they were not trying to go and win the game. I think they knew that 1-0 would get them through and they were happy with that so that is a compliment to us.”

“I think we played well, pretty much throughout. There was a couple of periods where I thought they got on top but we weathered the storm when we needed to and I thought we were way better than in our first game (v Tonga).”

• CIFA Media/OFC Media