U.S. men’s national team star Christian Pulisic has backed AC Milan to come good in the Champions League despite a 3-0 loss to Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday that left the Italian giants bottom of Group F.
Milan have just two points from their first three games in arguably the toughest group in this season’s competition. They have also yet to score a goal, having played out goalless draws at home to Newcastle United and at Borussia Dortmund before Wednesday’s defeat in the French capital.
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“We have to focus on the next game. We’re not out of it yet, we just need to string a couple of wins together,” Pulisic told CBS Sports. “We’ve had some tough games in some tough stadiums but that’s no excuse, we need to turn it around and we need to win.”
France forwards Kylian Mbappé and Randal Kolo Muani scored in either half to put PSG in control at the Parc des Princes before South Korea winger Lee Kang-in added a third late on to put the result beyond doubt.
Milan had a good chance to level the score shortly after half-time when Pulisic ran clear into the penalty area but, instead of shooting himself, opted to square the ball for Olivier Giroud, who could only shoot wide on the stretch.
“We weren’t clinical enough — I have to put a chance away today,” Pulisic said. “It’s on us, we just have to keep working. I guess it’s just not flowing right now but it will come again.
“I think we just have to keep our heads up. It doesn’t feel like a game we should lose 3-0, I think is the message. We were in the game for most of it and just let it slip away from us.
“We’ll be fine going forward, we’re a confident bunch of guys. The good thing with this schedule is we have another game in a couple of days and we can rebound.”
Pulisic signed for Milan this past summer from Chelsea and was later joined by USMNT teammate Yunus Musah. The duo have helped Milan make a strong start to the season domestically, sitting a point behind Serie A leaders Inter Milan after nine games.
But if Milan are to advance to the Champions League knockout rounds as one of the top two teams in the group, they will likely need a positive result when they host PSG at the San Siro in two weeks’ time.
“Every opponent is different, every opponent is a top team,” Musah told reporters. “Everyone talks about how hard our group is; so we have to reuse the level next time we play them.
“It wasn’t just tough for us, it was tough for them as well. We put them under pressure, we made them make mistakes, we created some chances but they punished us and we didn’t.”
ESPN’s Tom Hamilton contributed to this report.
