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Matt Garbett has earned the All Whites a 2-1 win over China to wrap up the two-game friendly series in New Zealand.
After 361 goalless days - or more than nine and a half hours of football - the All Whites have finally found the back of the net, beating China 2-1 in an entertaining friendly on Sunday.
Matt Garbett scored the winner, racing on to Joe Bell's chipped pass with 10 minutes remaining before Ba Dun scored a consolation goal in injury time.
Fittingly, the score that ended New Zealand's rotten run was an own goal that went in with at least one All Whites player offside.
Under heavy pressure from offside defender Michael Boxall, Zhu Chenjie headed Marco Rojas' free kick past his own keeper just before half-time.
With no VAR in use, the goal stood and the barren spell was over.
The win also ended another couple of lean streaks, earning New Zealand a first home win in six years and their first victory over non-Oceania opposition at home since 2009.
Sunday goalscorer Garbett was also the last player to score for New Zealand, netting the fifth in a 5-0 rout of Solomon Islands last March.
"That's the moment everybody released and celebrated ... that was the moment we knew we scored a proper goal," interim coach Darren Bazeley said.
"That was the moment we knew 'we scored a proper goal'."
Three days after a 0-0 draw at Mr Smart Stadium in Auckland, the series wrapped up at Wellington's Sky Stadium, with the All Whites full of local talent.
Of the starting XI, 10 were either products of local academies or played for A-League side Wellington Phoenix.
The one without a capital connection - striker Greive - may never want to come back.
Just after the half-hour mark Wu Shaocong barged into Elijah Just, giving the Auckland-raised and Scottish-based 23-year-old the chance to score a penalty.
Greive side-footed straight to Yan Junling with such a tame effort that if the Chinese gloveman were a set of cricket stumps, it may not have dislodged the bails.
Fans among the 10,307 in attendance may have wondered if New Zealand would ever score again.
Thankfully, Zhu did the hard work for them, giving the Kiwis a deserved half-time lead.
China - back in action for the first time since July 2022 with this series - enjoyed their best spell around the hour-mark, with pacey pair Ba and Wu Lei spurning opportunities from through-balls.
Ba's 92nd minute strike, a terrific header from fellow substitute Sun Guowen's cross, came too late to truly worry the All Whites.
China coach Aleksandar Jankovic said New Zealand - who dominated possession (60 to 40 per cent) and shots (17 to 9) - deserved the win.
'We had a very bad first half with bad intensity. Not enough, not sharp enough and always late. After that it was not easy to come back," he said.
Both sides handed out a string of international debuts in the two matches, with Kyle Adams earning his first senior cap off the bench, following Callan Elliot on Thursday.
Jankovic also bloooded Zhen Wei, Lin Liangming, Chen Pu and Sun, while Ba's goal was his first in China colours.
