Christian Pulisic broke Lionel Messi’s record for how many times he was fouled during Chelsea’s Champions League quarter-final tie against FC Porto.
Thomas Tuchel’s side fell to a 1-0 defeat in Seville on Tuesday night but moved into the semi-finals with a 2-1 aggregate win.
Porto couldn’t find a goal until stoppage time, and instead of targeting a goal during the game, they looked at Pulisic and constantly hacked away at the 22-year-old.
He was fouled 11 times, and as per ESPN, that is the most in a single Champions League match since Messi back in 2011 against Real Madrid.
Pulisic’s positive performance came two days after he had admitted his 2020-21 campaign has not gone exactly to plan.
The forward went several months without scoring and found himself outside of Tuchel’s lineup until gaining favour in recent weeks.
“It has not been an easy season,” Pulisic said to Chelsea’s official website in the build-up to the Porto match.
