Few expected him in the starting line-up against Ghana, and then he solved all of Croatia’s problems and with a winning goal for 2:1 in the 83rd minute took the team to the round of 16 of the World Cup in America, Canada and Mexico. Nikola Vlašić goes the epithet of the Croatian hero in Philadelphia, even if it wouldn’t be wrong if the name stood there Luka Modrić or Petar Sučić. Modrić responded to criticism in the first two games with a new teacher’s lesson of the indestructible, soon-to-be 41-year-old, and Sučić sent a projectile from 26 meters into the net for 1:0 at a speed of 120 kilometers per hour. At the same time, Modrić started the action that resulted in a corner kick Marija Pašalićwhich he took out, aiming for Vlašić’s head.
Although smaller than all three keepers, the 28-year-old from Split caught the ball with his head and it bounced off the post and into the net. In doing so, he showed his supreme resourcefulness in a by no means simple situation and thanked coach Dalić for the trust shown. It was his first headed goal out of a total of 11 in 65 appearances for Croatia.
Vlašić made his debut for the national team on May 28, 2017 as a then 19-year-old Hajduk player in a 2:1 victory in a friendly match against Mexico. The selector was Ante Cacicand he used it until the referee’s compensation in the position of the right wing. Nine years later, Dalić placed him in the same position against Ghana as a tactical surprise for Carlos Queirozconsidering that Nikola can enter the middle and thereby throw the Ghanaian defense off balance. How good a move it was was shown in the 17th minute when, on a pass from Baturina, he received the ball in the middle and shot hard about twenty meters away, but the ball hit the outside of the goal post.
It also showed his inspiration and great desire to prove himself, because Vlašić’s national team career so far has been marked by appearances from the bench and the role of a joker. Vlašić was a starter in only about twenty of the mentioned 65 games in the checkered jersey, while he collected the remaining minutes by coming on, mostly in the second half. When he was still young, perhaps he did not expect more, but later he did not manage to squeeze into the starting lineup due to the position of offensive midfielder, which in Dalić’s conception was often in the background, especially when he was dominating as the last midfielder Marcelo Brozovića Luka Modric and Mateo Kovačić acted alongside or in front of him. He was not fast enough for the wing position, so his role, which he plays the most in his current club Torino, remained insufficiently used.
However, his versatility and adaptability to the coach’s requirements allowed him to remain in the national team all the time, and the flash against Ghana will be extremely sweet for him, as he can mark a significantly greater playing time in the rest of the World Cup, especially after it, when Modrić and several other senior players will retire from the national team. Along with new young leaders like Martin Baturina and Petar Sučić, Vlašić will be in his most mature years to prove himself to the end in the Croatian jersey. One such important goal and victory as the icing on the cake is the best thing that could have happened to him in Philadelphia.
