Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leao took Milan by the hand yesterday in the second half of the match against Lecce. Trailing by two goals, the Rossoneri overturned the result thanks to the Portuguese's plays and the American's brace (his second goal came from an assist by Milan’s No. 10). The past few weeks had not been easy for either of them, but yesterday at the Via del Mare, they delivered the answers everyone was expecting.
Pulisic Decisive once again
With his two goals against Lecce, theformer Chelsea player reached 14 goals this season, becoming Milan's top scorer (in second place in this ranking is Reijnders with 12 goals). 'Captain America''s recent performances had not been positive, and to make matters worse, he had also missed a penalty against Torino. But in Milan’s most difficult moment, after three consecutive Serie A defeats, the American proved decisive once again.
"This is a very important win, it gives us a lot of confidence in this difficult moment. It was a tough period for me as well—I always want to score, but lately, that wasn’t happening. This match is the story of our season: we play well, create 5-6 chances, and then they take one shot and score. But I always believed we could win, even when we were down 2-0," Pulisic told Milan TV after the game, as relayed via Milannews.it.
Milan's Leao off the bench!
Rafael Leao's introduction at the start of the second half was also crucial, providing the necessary spark and playing a key role in both Gallo’s own goal (he assisted Joao Felix, whose shot was deflected into the net by the Lecce player) and Pulisic’s 3-2 winner with a perfect cross to the back post that the American only had to tap in.
This is not the first time this season that the Portuguese has made an impact coming off the bench—it also happened in Riyadh in the Italian Super Cup final against Inter and in Serie A against Empoli. Speaking to DAZN after the match, Leao said: "We all came in with an incredible desire to win. Unfortunately, two goals were disallowed, but we kept believing together, and in the end, we won because we gave it our all."
