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USMNT fans weighed in on Christian Pulisic’s exploits for AC Milan, claiming he should “stop stealing goals” after his effort against Slavia Prague.
Pulisic got himself on the scoresheet in a chaotic Europa League encounter at San Siro on Thursday evening. Following some impressive work by Milan team-mate Rafael Leao, which saw the Portuguese glide past numerous challenges before shooting goalward, Pulisic stuck out a toe to turn home from close range. While the effort was certainly going on target it may have been blocked on the line, meaning his touch was necessary, but that didn’t stop USMNT fans teasing their Hershey-born forward for “stealing” the effort.
In an Instagram post from the official USMNT page celebrating Pulisic’s goal, fans couldn’t hold back pointing out that he had some help in that effort.
Instagram user @kbeastiii_disc_dyes summarised it well, writing “Good goal, but ngl bro stole it from Leao”. And @mohaalba11 echoed those thoughts, joking “Leao must be fuming”. Some were more harsh in their assessment, such as @caleb.m_, who simply put “Stop stealing goals”.
The USMNT forward will no doubt be unfazed by such chat and appeared happy with this achievements after the full-time whistle, as he told Milan TV: “Of course it’s nice to get a goal, this is my job and I have to continue to put pressure on their defenders and cause problems and help us to try and score goals. I can be happy, but we would like to win with more goals.”
Indeed, Pulisic’s comments reflect what was largely a frustrating night for Milan, despite the win. Olivier Giroud opened the scoring after 34 minutes but Milan were pegged back just two minutes later through David Doudera. When Tijjani Reijnders and Ruben Loftus-Cheek scored two quick-fire goals right before half-time, it looked like Stefano Pioli’s side could pull away. However, Ivan Schranz’s effort just after the hour made life difficult for the home-team, and it was only Pulisic’s 85th-minute tap-in that brought some breathing space ahead of the return leg in Prague.
Thursday’s strike puts an end to a run of three matches without a goal for Pulisic. He will hope this helps him kick on as he has scored just two for Milan this calendar year. Before their Europa League last-16 return leg in on Thursday 14, Pioli’s men host Empoli in Serie A on Sunday.
