American statistician and analyst Paul Carr has shared a damning statistic after Chelsea’s 1-0 defeat to Porto in the Champions League this evening.
Carr reports that Yankee superstar Christian Pulisic tonight suffered the most fouls by any player in a Champions League clash since Barcelona great Lionel Messi against Real Madrid in 2011.
It’s added that the lightning-fast Blues winger was fouled 11 times by Porto in the second-leg tie, with that number perhaps not even including moments where advantage was played by the referee.
Chelsea lost the second-leg 1-0 due to a spectacular late bicycle kick from Mehdi Taremi, but there wasn’t enough time for the Dragons to mount a shock comeback against Thomas Tuchel’s men.
Pulisic and his dangerous dribbling have always attracted a large number of fouls, but being hit with the most since Lionel Messi, arguably the best player of all time, is something else.
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Sadly, Pepe did not also play in that 2011 game for Real Madrid.
He was suspended for a red card in the first leg vs Barcelona (really).
— Paul Carr (@PaulCarr) April 13, 2021
Whilst this shows just how much of a threat Pulisic was to Porto’s defence, it’s also perhaps a little concerning that this number of fouls on the star only yielded two yellow cards – Pepe and Luis Diaz.
Los Blancos put some real hurt on Messi in the second-leg of that semi-final tie back in 2011, and still couldn’t stop the attacker being on the winning side, just like Porto with Pulisic tonight.