Christian Pulisic started for the first time this season, and scored his first Milan goal since December
Pulisic had not started a game all season and had been left out of the United States squad three days earlier. He scored in the 14th minute, and Milan went into the break unbeaten.
Sep 21, 2026
Christian Pulisic had not started a game for AC Milan all season. He had missed the whole of pre-season, sat unused on the bench for the first three Serie A rounds, and his two appearances since had both been half-time introductions. On 17 September Mauricio Pochettino left him out of the United States squad for September and October. On Sunday night at San Siro he started, and in the 14th minute he scored.
Milan beat Lecce 3-0 in front of 73,197 people and go into the international break unbeaten, fifth, with three wins and two draws from five.
The touch, then the finish
Strahinja Pavlovic hit a cross-field pass towards the left. Pulisic killed it with one touch, moved it onto his left foot and put it into the bottom corner. It was the kind of goal that looks inevitable when it goes in and impossible when you watch the first touch again.
It was his first goal of the season and his first for Milan since 28 December 2025, when he volleyed in against Verona for his tenth of that campaign. Nearly nine months between goals, most of it spent injured or waiting. “It hasn’t been an easy year,” he said afterwards. “I’m happy about the goal today, but right now all that matters is to keep winning.”
Pochettino’s squad for the autumn friendlies had 28 names in it, 12 of them uncapped, and Pulisic was not one of them. Neither were Weston McKennie or Folarin Balogun. The coach’s explanation was that the staff had gone back to the player pool after the World Cup and picked the ones they wanted to work with, which is a polite way of saying the door is open but nobody is holding it.
Rabiot and Moreira make it comfortable
Lecce had the better of the opening few minutes, with Joel Monteiro and Ivan Ilic both getting sights of goal, and Mike Maignan had to save from Kialonda Gaspar before half-time. Milan should have been further ahead by the break: Koni De Winter headed wide and Wladimiro Falcone kept out Pavlovic.
The second goal arrived on 61 minutes. Adrien Rabiot exchanged passes with Gonçalo Ramos and slid the ball past Falcone. Twelve minutes later Diego Moreira, on as a substitute, won possession just inside the Lecce half, ran at the retreating defence down the left, cut inside the box and finished low under the goalkeeper.
Moreira is making a habit of this. Milan signed the Belgian winger from Strasbourg in August, and on 12 September he came off the bench against Lazio and scored twice. Three goals in the season so far, and he has been a substitute for all three.
Amorim needed this one
Four days before this, Benfica won 2-0 at San Siro in the Europa League, the first time they have beaten Milan in a competitive match. Dodi Lukebakio and Jakub Kaminski scored, Marco Silva got the better of Ruben Amorim, and the mood around the club was not good going into a home game against a side that had lost three of its first five.
Lecce never got into it. The scoreline flattered nobody and Milan were in control from the moment Pulisic’s shot went in. Fifth place and an unbeaten record is a reasonable return from Amorim’s first five league games, though the two draws are why Milan are looking up rather than down. Fifth is also exactly where Allegri finished last season, the result that cost him the job and cost Milan the Champions League. Nobody at San Siro is confusing a home win over Lecce with a solved season.