A player like Verinac in the derby

"He is a mentality monster"

Verinac, in particular, proved to be exactly the right type for the volatile match against the local rivals. "You saw that today," said his coach Markus Mader. He scored a beautiful goal, and Verinac is a mentality monster anyway.

"He is a center forward through and through; he sacrifices himself." He certainly still has room for improvement in some areas. "But if he continues like this, St. Gallen will bring him back in winter."

Dieter Alge saw it similarly. "He has the mentality; he's a winner. You notice it when he steps onto the pitch: He's hungry; he wants to score goals," said Lustenau's sporting director.

test — Kaum zu stoppen: Verinac krönte seinen Saisonbeginn gegen Altach
Foto: ©GEPA

Verinac often exaggerates a bit, and then he needs to be reined in. "He's young, still has a lot to learn - but in this game, he was enormously important because he also kept the defense busy," Alge said.

And also the opposing fans. Verinac reacted to the insults from the away sector with a wide smile.

"We knew what was at stake here"

Verinac himself seemed almost euphoric after the match. "It's a derby, you saw how the fan bases rival each other, and we players were aware of what was at stake here," he said.

Accordingly, Lustenau had also rallied. "We said in the team: Should one of us be attacked, we stand behind him as a team." The proof of this was delivered directly when the game had barely started; there was already the first scuffle. It wasn't the last.

They never wanted to be unfair, Verinac said they high-fived the Altach players after the game. "In the end, it's football; a bit of rivalry is part of it." The sentence was repeated several times.

With Verinac himself, for example. If you look at his style of play, he says, he is a powerful, fast striker who can also be "dirty". "That's a bit part of it."

Controversial Goal Celebrations

The fact that Verinac - and later Weixelbraun for the second goal - celebrated specifically in front of the Altach fan block was clearly not well-received there. That was simply the nearest corner that offered itself for celebration, Verinac said. And he added: "Perhaps it's also a bit part of my playing style, a bit part of provoking." If that happened, he apologized.

"Vielleicht gehört es auch ein bisschen zu meiner Spielweise dazu, ein bisschen dazu, zu provozieren."

Antonio Verinac

"That's a bit his way - that's also part of football," Alge found. Mader, however, defended his two players: "A player always turns away. We would have preferred to celebrate in front of our fans in the Nord stand." Neither player received a yellow card for unsportsmanlike conduct.

With the derby win under his belt, Verinac will now join his home country's U21 team. With Croatia, he will face Hungary, Ukraine, and Lithuania.

"I'll definitely arrive in Croatia with my head held high," Verinac said.

And self-confidence, that's part of it.