A Welsh woman has been explaining whey she used the deposit she had saved for a new home on a trip to Qatar to watch her beloved Wales play. Lauren McNie has spent the money to travel with her sister Kerrin to the World Cup.
The pair, from the Rhondda, both said they had waited their "whole lives" to see Wales play in a major tournament so there was "no way" they were going to miss it. The avid Wales supporters have followed the team to countless away games for decades, and were in the stadium for Wales' first game against America on Monday night.
The pair have paid £2,500 each for the trip so far, have tickets to all three of their side’s group games and also have a conditional ticket for the final, so will be flying back out should Wales beat the odds and make it to the end of the competition. Speaking from a sunny Doha, Lauren, 34, told GMB on Thursday (November 24): "I had the deposit saved up, but then when we (Wales) qualified, I diverted some of the money I had saved towards the trip.
"I can take another couple of years and save up a bit more, and get a house when the time is right once I have seen my country at the World Cup."
Presenter Susanna Reid asked sister Kerrin what she thought of Lauren "blowing the money" on the trip, who replied: "I would have expected nothing less . I didn't think it was going to be an issue. I assumed that was how it was going to go because we knew we were going to come out here."
Lauren added: "We have waited this for our whole lives, so there was no way we were going to miss it." Ben Shepherd asked how they felt about the next games against Iran on Friday and England on Monday, and they said there were feeling "confident".
Kerrin is confident Wales can come away from the next two games of the group stage with six points. She acknowledged the side needed to "step up" from the first half of their opening match but added that "the fight the boys showed in the second half" would help them to success going forward.
Around 3,000 Wales fans are thought to be in Qatar for Wales' first World Cup since 1958.
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