Ignored by AC Milan Teammates, Paulo Fonseca Consoles Christian Pulisic- “Must Never Happen Again”

Three missed penalties, a red card, and post-match trash talk—last night’s Serie A clash between Fiorentina and AC Milan was nothing short of a dramatic movie. Despite creating significant chances, the Rossoneri were forced to return home with a narrow 2-1 loss. In the eyes of Paulo Fonseca, however, if the Milan players hadn’t ‘changed their minds’ about their star teammate Christian Pulisic, the outcome might have been different.

As mentioned before, three penalty misses were witnessed in yesterday’s clash, out of which two were registered in Milan’s account. However, all of this happened because Pulisic didn’t take the penalty. Correction; Pulisic wasn’t given a chance to kick from the spot by his teammates, even though he is the one who has been handed over this responsibility.

The issue was raised forward by Fonseca in the post-match presser while addressing the penalty miss from his two different players. “The penalty taker is Pulisic, I don’t know why the players changed their minds. I spoke to him and said it must never happen again,” he said, as compiled by @usmntonly on X. This is surely something that would come as a surprise to many ardent fans.

After all, had the Rossoneri netted either of the two penalties, they would have gone home with much more than just a 1-2 defeat and nil points. Notably, the first penalty came in favor of Fiorentina inside 20 minutes but Moise Kean failed to open the scoring as he couldn’t get the ball past Mike Maignan. However, it was just 15 minutes later that Raffaele Palladino’s side took the lead, courtesy of Yacine Adli.

Interestingly, Milan got a chance to level just before halftime through a second penalty of the game. Instead of Pulsic, Theo Hernandez stepped up but the left-back failed to beat David De Gea. In the latter half, another penalty came in favor of Fonseca and Co., which again wasn’t given to the USMNT skipper as Tammy Abraham decided to be the hero. Sadly, he also failed to get the ball past De Gea, helping the former Manchester United a man of the match.

It was finally minutes later that Milan found their equalizer. The goal scorer you ask? Christian Pulisic, ladies and gentlemen. It was written in the stars to see him get his name on the scoresheet. But again, the visitor’s party was spoiled by the hosts as Albert Guomundsonn found the winner for Fiorentina. Just when you think the misery ends here for AC Milan, there’s more!

Christian Pulisic also denied a potential hat trick and a chance to pip the Serie A goalscoring charts!

For those unaware, Christian Pulisic is in red-hot form this season. The 26-year-old is chasing the Serie A top scorer charts, currently sitting third with a tally of 6 goals. Ahead of him are Inter’s Marcus Thuram and Atalanta’s Mateo Retegui, both tied at 7 goals. Now, according to Paulo Fonseca’s locker room rulebook, if Pulisic had taken both penalty kicks, he would have topped the goal-scoring tally by now. On top of that, it would have been a hat trick, let alone AC Milan potentially securing three points.

However, a sudden shift in team dynamics saw two other players take the penalties, both of which were missed. Now it’s not like Pulisic would have definitely scored; such mistakes are part of the beautiful game as it was rather the players’ misfortune. To add to their woes, aside from missing a penalty, Theo Hernandez also received a red card for abusing the referee after the match. Regardless, Pulisic will get a chance to take the next penalty, and Paulo Fonseca will definitely make sure of it!