Oribe Peralta bagged a first-half hat-trick to help Mexico book their passage to the 2014 World Cup finals with a 4-2 victory over New Zealand in the second leg of their play-off at Wellington Regional Stadium, yesterday.

The CONCACAF heavyweights, who were fortunate to sneak into the play-off, won the two-legged tie 9-3 on aggregate after they had virtually sealed qualification with a 5-1 victory over the Oceania champions at the Azteca Stadium last week.

“I’m very happy though we have a lot of work to do,” Mexico coach Miguel Herrera said.

“Going to the World Cup is totally different than playing a game and we have a lot of work to do before that.

“It was very tough for us to make it. We have a lot of work to do on and off the field but we will mix both together and I think Mexico will do well in the World Cup.”

Peralta put qualification beyond doubt when he chipped over Glen Moss for a 14th-minute goal following a beautiful pass from Carlos Pena before doubling the advantage 15 minutes later and completing his hat-trick just past the half-hour mark.

New Zealand added some respectability to the scoreline when midfielder Chris James blasted home an 80th-minute penalty and Rory Fallon grabbed a second three minutes later, before Mexico’s Pena completed the scoring in the 87th minute.

Mexico will be appearing at their 15th World Cup and sixth in a row since they were banned from the 1990 event by FIFA for fielding over-age players in a youth tournament, but their run of success was almost broken in CONCACAF qualifying.

They were minutes away from missing out on a play-off berth when they were beaten by Costa Rica last month but survived only after Panama blew a 2-1 lead against the US, who qualified automatically along with Costa Rica and Honduras.