Milan signed Alexandre Pato last summer, but he only turned eighteen in September, so could not be registered until the January transfer window.
Last night's game against Naples was his first chance to show the Milan faithful what he could do. Milan, the world club champions are languishing in the bottom half of the table this year and have been accused by some of being an old side. The youngster Pato, has, we are told the goal sense of Ronaldo, the dribbling skills of Careca, Romario's personality and the aerial ability of Jardel. In short, Alexandre 'the Duck' is likely to be talked about whenever soccer pundits sit and chew the fat.
The Stadio Meazza was packed to the rafters in anticipation of the young Duck's opening game in the red and black stripes of Milan. Milan, without a home win in Serie A this season played Pato alongside his fellow countrymen Kaka and Ronaldo in what looked on paper an awesome attack, and so it proved to be. It was Ronaldo who opened the scoring after Lavezzi had caused problems for the Milan defence at the other end. It was a muddled affair that looked to have been cleared off the line but had actually gone over. Iezzo in the Naopli goal stopped a Pato shot and Ronaldo headed wide before Napoli equalized on the counter-attack with Lavezzi's cross being tapped home by Sosa in the twenty-eighth minute.
Iezzo had to pull off two point-blank saves from Pato before Clarence Seedorf gave Milan the lead after half an hour. Pato again forced a save from Iezzo and then gave Ronaldo a chance which he fluffed. Domizzi scored from the spot in the thirty-eighth minute after Kaladze brought down Lavezzi to see the sides go in level at halftime.
Within seconds of the restart Milan took the lead through a Ronaldo flicked header on the end of a Seedorf cross and the score remained 3-2 until the sixty-eighth minute when Kaka let fly a cracking shot from about 25 yards that flew into the net. This meant that Milan had scored more goals in this game than in all their home Serie A fixtures to date this season. In the seventy-fourth minute the San Siro erupted as a long Favalli chip over the defence to Pato was converted with a touch of his right foot. That's how the game finished, with Milan 5-2 up and Pato having come close a couple more times. "I dedicate the goal to my family and my girlfriend," said the 18-year-old after the game.
At the top, Juventus lost some ground after drawing at Catania while Roma kept the pressure on Inter after coming back from behind to beat Atalanta 1-2 in Bergamo. Inter didn't have it all their own way against Sienna and had to work hard for their 2-3 win there.
THIS WEEK'S RESULTS
Atalanta 1-2 Roma
Cagliari 0-1 Udinese
Catania 1-1 Juventus (Sat eve.)
Empoli 1-1 Reggina (Sat eve.)
Lazio 1-2 Genoa
Milan 5-2 Napoli (eve.)
Parma 1-2 Fiorentina
Sampdoria 3-0 Palermo
Siena 2-3 Inter
Torino 1-2 Livorno
SERIE A TABLE
Pts P W D L F A
Inter 46 18 14 4 0 40 10
Roma 39 18 11 6 1 35 19
Juventus 36 18 10 6 2 36 16
Udinese 32 18 9 5 4 23 21
Fiorentina 31 18 8 7 3 28 17
Palermo 25 18 6 7 5 25 30
Sampdoria 24 18 7 3 8 25 24
Napoli 23 18 6 5 7 27 27
Atalanta 22 17 5 7 5 24 23
Catania 22 18 5 7 6 18 20
Genoa 22 18 5 7 6 18 24
Lazio 18 18 4 6 8 20 27
Livorno 18 17 4 6 7 21 28
Milan 21 15 5 6 4 26 14
Parma 18 18 4 6 8 20 26
Torino 17 18 2 11 5 16 22
Empoli 16 18 3 7 8 15 25
Reggina 14 17 2 8 7 13 26
Siena 14 18 2 8 8 18 28
Cagliari 10 18 2 4 12 13 34
