A hat-trick by Emiliano Tade guided Auckland City to a 7-0 romp over AS Venus in the OFC Champions League at Trusts Arena on Sunday.

Tade's treble and goals to Reid Drake, Micah Lea’alafa, Dalton Wilkins – scoring on his OFC Champions League debut – and Callum McCowatt completed an afternoon of dominance for the table-topping Navy Blues.

The last time Auckland City faced Tahitian opposition on this same venue it ended in humiliation when AS Dragon beat the Navy Blues 3-1 in 2013 but there were no signs of any such upset here.

Coach Ramon Tribulietx was pleased with the result as his team fired a warning to those aspiring to end their seven-in-a-row title-winning sequence.

“We spoke about controlling the game from the start, keeping the ball and learning from it, I think we did that really well in the first half,” he said.

“We didn’t really give them much to go off, just a couple of shots from distance. It was a good performance and that’s the way to keep going.”

Tade stood out for the Navy Blues but the contribution of substitute Wilkins impressed Tribulietx due to his versatility.

“We have a player like Dalton Wilkins, who played in two positions and neither of those were his natural positions. So it’s great to see the players understand exactly the way we want to play regardless of where they play, higher or deeper on the field,” he said.

“Emiliano is a very important player for us and it’s good to see him putting goals away but I think the whole team performed really well.”

On Wednesday, Auckland City will take on Madang in their second OFC Champions League match and Tribulietx is well aware of the attacking threat the Papua New Guinean side currently possesses.

“They’ve got some very skilful players, especially in the front line, very typical island players – small, but technically very good, very fast. So we need to understand that it’s probably going to be different than this Tahitian team, probably a little more attacking minded,” he said.

“It will be a matter of whether or not we can control the game.”

OFC Champions League
Group C

AS Venus 0
Auckland City 7 (Emiliano Tade 7’, pen 36’, 74’, Micah Lea’alafa 44’, Callum McCowatt 59’, Reid Drake 37’, Dalton Wilkins 66’)
HT: 0-4