Ricardo Pepi made sure to make the most of his cameo in UEFA Champions League play on Tuesday night.
Pepi came off the bench to score his third goal of the season in all competitions as PSV routed Napoli 6-2 in UCL league phase play. The American striker made his second Champions League appearance of the campaign.
Napoli scored the opening goal of the match through Scott McTominay’s header but PSV would answer back in quick succession. An own goal from Alessandro Buongiorno paired with Ismael Saibari’s go-ahead finish propelled Peter Bosz’s squad in front 2-1 at halftime.
Dennis Man extended PSV’s lead to 3-1 nine minutes after the interval before Napoli eventually saw its comeback chances diminish.
Lorenzo Lucca was sent off in the 76th minute, reducing the Serie A visitors to 10-men.
Man added his second goal of the night, and despite McTominay adding an insurance tally four minutes from time, Pepi added two goal contributions of his own.
The USMNT forward finished off Couhaib Driouech’s pass in the 87th minute before returning the favor to Driouech two minutes later. It marked Pepi’s first match with an assist this season and his first goalscoring performance since September 13.
Fellow USMNT teammate Sergino Dest also played five minutes off of the bench.
The result moved PSV to 11th in the UCL table through three matches played.
Both Pepi and Dest will now be pushing to start for PSV on Sunday with a top-two Eredivisie date against Feyenoord coming up.
Confidence boost for sure for Pepi and PSV. Napoli was getting handled even before they accrued a red.
U17 WNT defeats China 5-2. That secures advancement to the next round and barring a collapse against last place Norway wins them the group. Norway is 0-2 -7 and have yet to score.