Christian Pulisic only needed 2 minutes and 47 seconds for his Champions League statement.

He opened the first day of football’s most important club competition with a beautiful goal that gave AC Milan victory over Liverpool.

The English guests eventually came back, dominated the game and deservedly won 3-1. But Pulisic was still the star of this outstanding evening for the Americans in Europe.

Once a teenage phenomenon, Pulisic spent his early 20s in an almost toxic environment at Chelsea. He should have been at his peak by now, but instead he found himself floundering desperately in front of a bloated squad, fighting for playing time and constantly having to adapt to new managers.

When he played, he was often pretty good, sometimes even very good. But he was inconsistent. He was a young adult still trying to find himself, on the field and in this world. At times, his career seemed to have stalled. His development, it seemed, was stagnating.

Last summer, however, he escaped the chaos and malaise at Chelsea. He landed in Milan and almost immediately proved that he was a victim of circumstance rather than developmental stagnation. With decisive goals and dogged work, he quickly won over the Italian fans – and teammates and coaches – and played consistently for an entire season.

He finished the season with 12 goals and 8 assists in Serie A, both career highs, and 15 goals and 10 assists overall. He was named to the Italian League’s Team of the Season, while also becoming the leader and most reliable player for the United States Men’s National Team.

The only questions that remained were about his underlying numbers: Did Pulisic perhaps have a good but unsustainable final streak that led him to his breakthrough season? Were his expected goal and assist rates – the not Career highlights – signs of an impending setback?

In his second year at AC Milan, Pulisic has already begun to answer those questions, scoring two goals – albeit a penalty and a tap-in – and providing two assists in four Serie A games.

And on his Champions League debut in 2024/25, he showed off his full skills. He picked up the ball in transition. He carried it about 35 meters and drove it into open space. He shot it past Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson through a narrow window into the net on the opposite side.

And he has added to the evidence that he is indeed a star at the highest level of football. According to Opta, no player has contributed to more goals for a Serie A team since his arrival last summer than Pulisic with his 30th goal.

More Champions League results and USMNT players

Pulisic was not the only American in action on Tuesday. Earlier, Weston McKennie scored for Juventus 80 miles west of Milan in Turin.

According to statistician Paul Carr, it is the first time that two USMNT players have scored a goal on the same day in the Champions League.

And the match between Juventus and PSV Eindhoven, which Juve won 3-1, featured five US players (McKennie, Tim Weah, Malik Tillman, Richy Ledezma, Ricardo Pepi) – more than ever before in a Champions League match.

Elsewhere in the competition, Aston Villa won their first modern Champions League game, beating BSC Young Boys 3-0 in Bern, Switzerland.

Bayern Munich crushed Dinamo Zagreb 9-2.

Sporting Clube de Portugal defeats Lille 2-0.

And Real Madrid, after struggling against Stuttgart, secured a 3-1 victory – meaning the favourites won all six games on Tuesday.