Christian Pulisic hailed Chelsea's 'crazy' comeback against Ajax as his side fought back from 4-1 down to draw 4-4, although the American midfielder said he was disappointed that the Blues didn't go on to win on Wednesday.
The 21-year-old has already been a part of some wild matches, recalling losing a 4-0 lead with Borussia Dortmund in a match at home to rivals Schalke in 2017 as his side settled for a 4-4 draw.
This time the U.S. men's national team star was on the right end of the result as goals from Cesar Azpilicueta, Jorginho and Reece James hauled Chelsea back to earn a valuable point. Pulisic is happy with his side's fighting spirit but he admits that Chelsea were keen to score the fifth against nine men.
"Definitely. I’ve been in some wild games before," Pulisic told reporters at Stamford Bridge. "I remember being up 4-0 in Dortmund and tying 4-4. I don’t want to talk about that... This game was crazy.
"Experiences help for sure. Being at some point bad and now being on the other end of it is special. You could see when the team put them under pressure like that it’s just not easy. Of course, I enjoy the game every time I’m out on the pitch.
"It’s kind of mixed after a game like that, being down like that, you’d think a draw would be an unbelievable result but it’s almost that feeling where we wanted more. We scored a winner and it was taken back so it was tough.
"It shows just how much fight this team has, even being down 3-1 and then it went to 4-1, it’s crazy. To think we were still able to come back says a lot about our team. In the half time, we said we were never going to give up, we can go out and win this game. We showed a lot of fight and came back."
The match was only the fourth 4-4 in Champions League history and Chelsea were the first English side to come from three goals down since Liverpool in the 2005 final against AC Milan.
However, even though the comeback was impressive from the Blues, they will be disappointed to have conceded four at home to their main Group H rivals.
"Just silly goals on our part, silly defensive mistakes, but we’re going to make chances and we’re going to win this game," Pulisic recalled manager Frank Lampard saying at halftime. "He gives us confidence and he’s the one who pushes us and tells us to do it. It shows the fight of all the team."
Impressively, Ajax still mustered several attempts after both Daley Blind and Joel Veltman were sent off in the same moment.
Lampard and several Chelsea players embraced Ajax's stars on the final whistle, and Pulisic acknowledges that there was mutual respect shown after playing out a classic.
"It’s the kind of team they are. They were kind of sitting and doing well on the counter," he said. "You’ve got to deal with that because we were putting a lot of guys forward because we needed to. But yeah, they’re a good team."
Group H is finely poised as Chelsea, Ajax and Valencia all sit on seven points. Chelsea will travel away to Valencia next in their group after they secured an important result by beating Lille 4-1 on the same matchday.
"It’s going to be a huge game for us," Pulisic said of travelling to the Mestalla on 27 November. "We just have to get a result there and we’re looking great to go through. It’s going to be really tight. It just makes those next games that much more important, so we have to go there and get a result."
