New Zealand coach Darren Bazeley pointed to the World Cup’s string of surprises as evidence his bottom-placed team can pull off an upset in Friday’s Do-Or-Die Group G showdown with Belgium.
Bazeley’s team have a solitary point after drawing 2-2 with Iran before losing 3-1 to Egypt. Now they face the daunting prospect of taking on Belgium’s star-studded attack with Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku and Jeremy Doku, despite the Europeans’ slow start to the tournament.
New Zealand, still searching for its first-ever World Cup win, must beat Belgium and hope Iran fails to beat group leaders Egypt if it is to progress to the knockout stages as second in the group, although they could also go through as one of the top eight third-placed sides.
“There have been a lot of results this World Cup, and yesterday we watched South Africa beat South Korea, and we just finished watching Germany get beat (by Ecuador) – a team that goes from one point to four points and qualify,” Bazeley told reporters on Thursday.
“So yes, we have to believe in it. We certainly have belief within the camp, we have to believe that we are good enough, we have to believe that we can get a win tomorrow and achieve what we wanted to do, which is to try to make history and get out of the group at a World Cup.
“The opportunity is there for us, for the players to do exactly that.”
Captain Chris Wood remains central to New Zealand’s hopes. The 34-year-old Nottingham Forest striker has yet to score in the tournament, but has provided two assists in as many games.
“He’s a goalscorer, he’s a Premier League player and this World Cup is littered with the best players in the world scoring goals,” Bazeley said.
“It’s tough for Woodsy – he does so much hard work for us and leads the line. We haven’t really given him the perfect service or given him the chances at the moment because we know when he gets the chance he’s going to score – that’s what he does for a living.»
«So we haven’t been able to give him enough moments for those opportunities. They have fallen into the hands of other players and we have had players who have taken their moments, but we have to feed Woodsy and get him into areas where we know he can score goals for us.»
Published on June 26, 2026
