• New Zealand lost 1-0 to Peru in a FIFA World Cup playoff warm-up match.
• The team will now face Costa Rica on June 14.
• Hay said he learned a lot from the match.

After his team’s 1-0 loss to Peru in a World Cup playoff warm-up match, New Zealand coach Danny Hay said, “We learned a hell of a lot.”

New Zealand will face Costa Rica on June 14 in Doha for a spot in the November-December Qatar World Cup, with Hay stating that the loss to Peru was ideal preparation.

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Gianluca Lapadula scored the game-winning goal in the 69th minute of Sunday’s match at the RCDE Stadium in Barcelona when New Zealand goalkeeper Oli Sail mishandled a backpass.

“I learnt a huge amount,” Hay told reporters after the friendly loss in front of a boisterous pro-Peru crowd.

“That’s the first time since November 2019 that we’ve actually played in front of a crowd (because of Covid), believe it or not.

“So the opportunity to play in a stadium like this with such a vocal, loud crowd, where we couldn’t communicate clearly with each other, I think we learned a hell of a lot.”

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New Zealand, who are ranked 101st by FIFA and have only qualified for the World Cup twice before, will face Oman in Qatar on Thursday in another friendly.

Hay stated that his team, which featured Chris Wood of Newcastle up front, improved as the game progressed.

“I think as the game progressed and we got over that little bit of that fear factor… I think we really started to come to life in the second half and there was some good football in the second half,” he said.

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