Oceania World Cup qualifying semi-final betting tips: Previews, predictions and odds

New Zealand and Solomon Islands to win is 2/1.

This is the semi-final stage of OFC World Cup qualification; all matches are being played in Qatar.

The two winners will meet in the play-off final on Wednesday.

The winners of that will advance to the inter-confederation play-off and face a nation from CONCACAF for a place at the World Cup.

New Zealand vs Tahiti

Will New Zealand keep their World Cup dreams alive?

So far in this qualification campaign, the All Whites have cruised through, winning all three matches, scoring 12 goals and conceding just once.

This includes Thursday's 7-1 demolition of New Caledonia in which Chris Wood took his record-extending tally to 32 senior international goals.

In all, New Zealand have now won 23 of their last 29 World Cup qualifiers against fellow OFC members, losing none, scoring 70 goals in the process.

However, the Kiwis have only ever featured at two World Cup Finals, 1982 and most recently 2010.

That's because only 0.5 places are on offer to teams from Oceania, with New Zealand falling in the play-offs to Mexico and Peru in the last two cycles.

Will Danny Hay's side remain on track to reach this June's inter-confederation play-off?

Tahiti meanwhile are the only other current Oceanic member to have lifted the OFC Nations Cup, winning the 2012 edition of the tournament.

This saw the Iron Warriors qualify for the following summer's Confederations Cup, at which they lost all three games and shipped 24 goals.

So far in this campaign, Samuel Garcia's side have only played once after Vanuatu, the Cook Islands and Tonga were all forced to withdraw.

On Thursday, Tahiti were beaten 3-1 by the Solomon Islands, which is why they're facing the Group B winners in this semi-final.

Everything points towards an easy New Zealand victory at Al-Arabi Stadium.

New Zealand to win and both teams to score NO is 1/2. Over 2.5 goals and both teams to score NO is 6/5. New Zealand to win 3-0 is 9/2.

Solomon Islands vs Papua New Guinea

Who will move one step closer to an unlikely World Cup appearance?

The Solomon Islands have won both their matches in this campaign so far, 2-0 against the Cook Islands and then 3-1 over Tahiti.

Raphael Lea'i bagging a hat-trick in the latter, ensuring his team took top spot in Group A.

The Bonitos are now looking to reach back-to-back OFC qualification finals after losing 8-3 to New Zealand on aggregate five years ago.

Papua New Guinea began this campaign with a narrow 1-0 loss to New Zealand, before bouncing back by beating New Caledonia by the same scoreline.

Even so, Marcos Gusmão's side had to beat Fiji on Thursday to reach the knockout stages.

Despite falling behind, Ati Kepo equalised in first half stoppage time before Tommy Semmy got the winner after the break.

These two last met a the same stage of the last qualification cycle with Solomon Islands winning both meetings, 3-2 in Honiara and 2-1 in Port Moresby.

Will this one go the same way in Qatar?

Solomon Islands to win is 1/1. Both teams to score is 3/5. Solomon Islands to win 2-1 is 8/1.

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