Two AC Milan players were in World Cup action overnight as Christian Pulisic and Pervis Estupinan both came off the bench.
There was some doubt about Pulisic’s involvement in the USA’s final group stage game against Turkey as he was battling a calf issue that forced him to miss the previous match versus Australia. However, he was in the squad and begun on the bench.
Read SempreMilan ad-free and get access to exclusive news. Click here for a free trial!
Pulisic came on during the 3-2 defeat to Turkey last night and certainly made a notable impact, having been denied a spectacular goal upon his entry and coming close to scoring again a quarter of an hour later.
He displayed his usual endeavour and technical ability, taking four shots from the 58th minute until the end of the match, completing 100% of his passes. He was fouled three times, and he won three duels, though ended up on the losing side.
Meanwhile, Pervis Estupinan came on in the 72nd minute for Piero Hincapié, who booked and then got injured. The Milan left-back won 50% of his duels, making four clearances and one defensive recovery.
He didn’t participate much in the attacking play, having only 13 touches. He completed five of six passes and crucially was on the field when Ecuador got their winner in the final 15 minutes, which allowed them to secure progress to the knockout stages, sparking jubilant scenes.
The left-back thus increases his playing time to around 90 minutes at the tournament, after starting in the second match, which ended in a draw against Curaçao, and being on the bench for the entire match in the opening match against Ivory Coast.
The impression is that Hincapié is the designated left-back, and we’ll see Estupinan starting in the knockout stages only in the event of injury or suspension. A change in formation could help him too, as happened in the second match (a three-man back line with wing-backs).
