AC Milan entered Wednesday’s action hoping to advance into the UEFA Champions League Round of 16, and although Stefano Pioli’s men did not reach that goal, the Rossoneri did avoid a European exit altogether.
Christian Pulisic’s second-half goal helped kick off a 2-1 comeback victory for AC Milan over Newcastle United, clinching it third place in Group F. Samuel Chukwueze’s late winner helped seal the Rossoneri’s spot into the Europa League while also eliminating the Magpies from Europe.
Joelinton propelled Newcastle United in front after 33 minutes, putting the Serie A visitors under pressure. Lewis Miley’s pass was finished off by the Brazilian forward for a 1-0 Magpies lead.
However, AC Milan would fight its way back after halftime through the in-form Pulisic. A superb team move was started by Yunus Musah and finished off by Pulisic in the box, giving Stefano Pioli’s men a 1-1 equalizer.
It marked Pulisic’s third-straight match with a goal involvement across all competitions.
https://x.com/CBSSportsGolazo/status/1735047892040048772?s=20
With both teams pressing for a winning goal, it was the Rossoneri who delivered. Samuel Chukwueze finished off Noah Okafor’s pass only 52 seconds after entering as a substitute, giving AC Milan a 2-1 lead for good.
Musah logged 83 minutes in midfield while Pulisic played 73 minutes at right wing. Both players will now prepare to help AC Milan make a deep run at a Europa League title in 2024.
The Rossoneri will resume Serie A play on Sunday against Monza.
Pulisic’s finish was not as easy as he made it look, took it one time on a half volley and squeezed it underneath the keeper. Great team goal, and what a play by Giroud to find him.
End-to-end stuff in the 2nd half. Such a fun game to watch.
Gotta admit that Newcastle’s defense looked to be totally asleep. They hardly reacted at all and just stood and watched as the ball caromed in their box. Still, a goal is a goal and Pulisic is well on his way to double digit goals this season.
Clint made a living scoring goals basically off of stupid mistakes , things like poorly cleared balls by defenders.
I think you’ll find that most goals are the result of dumb ass brain farts as opposed to a guy like Pulisic dribbling past the entire Newcastle team and then walking the ball into the net.
There are great goal scorers, guys who consistently score a lot of goals.
Then there are scorers of great goals, like Garnacho of Man U. who had that great overhead kick goal recently.
Some guys can do both but if you can only do one consistently you want to be the guy who scores a lot of goals, even if they are all ugly.
Being a big Dempsey fan, I watched Fulham every time I could and probably saw at least 2/3 of his goals with Fulham. Dempsey was not a poacher. Almost all of his goals came outside of the 6 yard box and a large number came from outside the 18 yard box. Most of Dempsey’s goals came while he was a left midfielder. Because a player takes advantage of a defensive mistake is no knock on the scorer and there are no style points in soccer, something I have said dozens of times. However, there is no doubt that some goals are more difficult than others and Pulisic has scored a lot more difficult goals than this one. That should be obvious. I just pointed out for those who didn’t see that the goal was aided by shambolic defending.
Gary Page,
I won’t get into which one of us saw more Clint goals than the other .
What I will say is that:
+ You say poacher like it’s a dirty word.
“SOCCER
a player who is particularly skilled at taking fleeting chances to score goals. noun: goal poacher;”
“Fleeting chances’ often come when defenders fall asleep or make small mistakes. Clint was a poacher. Clint was always around the ball or coming in from the blind side so you screw up and he punished you. People tend to remember the nice ones and forget the tap ins, the defender w/ the crap clearance, the keepers dropping the shot,,etc.
+ Clint was a very consistent scorer but he also,every once in a while, scored a golazo.
+ Watch Pulisic’s goal again. The greatness there was the assist from Giroud but I’ve seen better players than Pulisic screw up that shot. He deserves a lot of credit for being clinical and not blowing it over the bar or screwing it wide.
Many think Lampard was a garbage coach but he was the guy who first put Pulisic more up front and told him he had to be more clinical with
his finishing and score more like Eden Hazard or Arjen Robben. He knew CP would need that goal production to be taken seriously.
Not his best game, but got the tying goal. At least Milan are still in Europe playing in the Europa League.