When the final whistle sounded, the new Singaporean citizen trooped off the field amid warm applause, grateful to notch a brace on his international debut to help Singapore to a 2-0 win over Tajikistan in the second round of the Asian Zone World Cup Qualifiers yesterday.
Even Duric, the oldest player ever to make an international debut for the Lions, didn't think everything would go as smoothly as it did.
As the 37-year-old SAFFC striker admitted, he was feeling the jitters prior to the game.
He said: 'I was all jittery before this. I couldn't sleep one wink last night.
'The whole day, I was so nervous.'
The 6,606 spectators who showed up at the National Stadium wouldn't have guessed it. Some were even asking around to find out who the player in the No. 9 jersey was.
But it took only two minutes for the debutant to make his intentions known.
Released by skipper Indra Sahdan in the penalty box, he could only shoot straight at Tajikistan goalkeeper Alexandr Mukanin.
From then on, Singapore settled into their rhythm and came close to scoring on several occasions.
With 15 minutes on the clock, he almost scored again, this time heading a Mustafic Fahrudin cross high over the bar.
But there was no denying him nine minutes later. The Tajikistan defence allowed a long goal-kick to bounce and Duric sneaked in from the blind side to tuck the ball into the bottom right corner of the net.
CLOUD NINE
A minute before the break, he struck again, heading the ball into goal after his inital effort was parried.
It was a warm and humid night at the National Stadium, but Duric felt like he was in Cloud Nine.
He said: 'It was a nearly perfect night for me.
'If only I had taken my chance to complete my hat-trick. That would have made it perfect.
'Still, it was a dream debut for me.'
Indeed, it could have been even better.
His best chance to complete his hat-trick came five minutes after the break, when he was sent clean through by Indra.
Duric managed to beat the Tajikistan custodian but the ball trickled centimetres wide.
Still, his performance drew praise from coach Raddy Avramovic at the post-match media conference.
While he was lamenting about not taking an even bigger lead into the second leg, he said that he was pleased with the Bosnia-born striker's contributions.
He said: 'I told him not to think about doing miracles on the pitch before this match. He just needed to play his normal game.
'He knew most of his team-mates because they either come from his club or he has been playing against them in the S-League for a long time.
'As it turned out, he did an excellent job.'
With the tag of S-League's leading scorer with 37 goals, Duric certainly lived up to his billing.
He had only gone through five training sessions with the Lions.
In fact, he wasn't even supposed to play last night's match.
It was only on Thursday evening that he learnt he was starting the game, because team-mate Shi Jiayi was injured.
He said: 'This is definitely my best moment in football.
'I'm very emotional at the moment.'
However, there is more work to be done.
Avramovic believes that his side needs to score at least one goal in the second leg in Dushanbe on Nov 18.
He said: 'We should have scored two more in the second half. We could have played better.
'If we want to qualify for the next round, we must score in our away game.'
SINGAPORE: Lionel Lewis, Baihakki Khaizan, Precious Emuejeraye, Noh Alam Shah, Aleksandar Duric, Indra Sahdan (Shahril Ishak 87), Faizal Hamid, Khairul Amri (Fazrul Nawaz 83), John Wilkinson (Ridhuan Muhamad 90), Mustafic Fahrudin, Daniel Bennett
