Kaka reaches century mark for Milan
Print Edition
Kaka scored his 100th goal for AC Milan on Monday to help it to a much-needed 3-0 win over Atalanta in Serie A, and Napoli beat Sampdoria 2-0 to close the gap on second-place Roma.
Kaka, who is in his second spell at Milan, scored twice to take his tally to 101 goals for the club. Teenage striker Bryan Cristante scored the third in his first start.
“I don’t know how to explain the emotion of having scored 101 goals with Milan,” Kaka said. “Every goal has its own feeling and waiting for one always causes the usual anxiety. I was waiting for this one for a few matches. I hoped it would arrive in the derby, like my first goal 10 years ago. It’s still a crazy feeling. I am really happy to have started 2014 like this.”
In the early match, Dries Mertens scored twice to help Napoli move two points behind Roma, which lost to Juventus on Sunday.
Also, Luca Toni scored twice as newly-promoted Hellas Verona won 3-1 at Udinese, while Edy Reja steered Lazio to a 1-0 victory over Inter Milan in his first match back in charge.
In other matches, it was: Parma 3, Torino 1; Catania 2, Bologna 0; and Genoa 2, Sassuolo 0.
Milan had endured a bad finish to 2013 with a derby defeat to Inter Milan and was still without Riccardo Montolivo, Stephan El Shaarawy, Valter Birsa, Ignazio Abate, Kevin Constant and Sulley Muntari. Mario Balotelli had flu-like symptoms and was only fit for the bench so the 18-year-old Cristante was handed a first league start.
Cristante had previously played only five minutes of Serie A football but he had two goalscoring opportunities within the first 14 minutes and hit the crossbar.
Kaka had been waiting for more than a month to reach a century of goals for Milan and he did so in the 35th minute, finishing off a swift counterattack led by Urby Emanuelson following an Atalanta corner. He celebrated by brandishing a Milan shirt with his name and the number 100.
“I don’t know where I can get to. I would like to think immediately of 200 goals, but it’s better to aim for 110,” Kaka said. “I want to leave my mark in the history of Milan.”
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