Christian Pulisic made history Saturday as he became the first U.S. male to play in a Champions League final.
Pulisic, who has 36 caps for the United States, came on in the 66th minute of Chelsea‘s showdown with Manchester City at Estadio do Dragao.
– Man City, Chelsea have ruled in England, and will continue
Pulisic, 22, is the record-holder for goals in a season (2), career appearances (35), assists (7) and minutes (2,100) for an American in the competition, and added to his list of records when he replaced Timo Werner with Chelsea 1-0 ahead in Porto.
If Chelsea are crowned champions, the Pennsylvania native would become the second American to win the Champions League, joining Jovan Kirovski, who won the competition with Borussia Dortmund in 1997. But Kirovski played in parts of just two group matches that season.
Pulisic has been an important contributor in Chelsea’s run to the final this campaign, leading the team with three goal involvements — one goal and two assists — during the knockout stage.
Chelsea are looking for their second European crown overall in three final appearances. They lost the 2008 final to Manchester United before dramatically beating Bayern Munich on penalties in the 2012 edition.
The final was originally set for Istanbul but the decision by the UK government to place Turkey on its travel red list forced UEFA to find a new host venue for the all-English. All arrivals from Turkey into the UK must quarantine at an airport hotel for 10 days.
There were up to 16,500 supporters in attendance, with City and Chelsea each receiving an allocation of around 6,000 tickets, though the London club returned more than 800 unsold tickets. A further 1,700 tickets were released for the general public and they sold out on Tuesday.