Christian Pulisic and the challenge of starring against Barcelona

On Tuesday, Chelsea will play their second match of the preseason against Barcelona as part of the Rakuten Cup from Japan's Saitama Stadium and all signs point toward United States national team star Christian Pulisic getting the start against the Catalonian outfit.

It will be the first time that Pulisic has faced Barcelona, but playing against a Spanish side will be nothing new for the Blues midfielder.

In the 2016/17 and 2017/18 Champions League as a member of Borussia Dortmund, Pulisic featured in four group stage matches against Real Madrid and showed well.

In addition, last season he played the two Champions League matches in the group stage versus Atletico Madrid. Things didn't go well in the 2-0 loss at the Estadio Wanda Metropolitano, but he played a sound match in the German side's 4-0 win against Simeone's men in Dortmund.

Despite it being a Barcelona side without leading men Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, Tuesday's friendly represents a nice challenge for Pulisic, as it's not every day that a U.S. player has the chance to play against the Blaugrana side, whether it be a friendly or competitive match.

Pulisic has been at Chelsea little time, but is already showing his wares after making his debut last Friday against Kawasaki Frontale. He played the final 30 minutes and afterward was praised by manager Frank Lampard, who highlighted the play of the 20-year-old Yankee: "He was good. He's only been with us a few days and he's impressed me a lot."

Now for Pulisic a new opportunity is there for the taking to show that he's worth the 64 million euros paid for by the English team. Playing a good game against Barcelona would be another step forward.