Donna Vekic suffers mid-air fright ahead of Guadalajara victory!
When a fan gets up to greet Donna Vekic as she leaves her seat to hug her coach and players after scoring the only goal in the 2-1 win over Santos Lagunero at home, the entire team immediately takes off. The team is on the field in less than a minute after the final whistle.
After the score was announced, Vekic ran back on the pitch. She didn’t stop as she went right up to the fans in the stands and hugged them, and then continued running. She didn’t walk. She didn’t stop. She just ran as fast as she could, with her head down and just overburdened with emotion.
It was a big moment for the Croatian’s career, for Croatia at large. And it was the most important goal of the game, a game that could have gone either way in a tight contest between two teams that are well matched at this stage of the competition.
“You could say that I won’t be satisfied until I beat the world champions,” said Vekic after the game. “But I think the two teams have made a good battle, and I am happy to score the winner.”
Her goal, which came just two minutes after the break for a 2-1 victory, was exactly what the team needed. A win would have given them some breathing room early on as Santos is off to a 3-0 start. It is only a matter of time before Santos is through.
Santos’s coach Javier “Chocolatito” Calderon, in his post-game press conference, said he is happy with how the players played in the first 45 minutes of the match.
It took some time, but it looks like Vekic’s goal — after scoring her first goal in a Croatian shirt — will be the turning point of the game, as she becomes the first player to score a team-high seven goals in one match for the Croatian senior national team.
