Kaka scores 100th goal as AC Milan beats Atalanta

MILAN: 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.

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.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.

Atalanta threatened to equalize, notably just before halftime when Cristian Raimondi´s shot was deflected onto the upright.

However, two goals in three minutes all but sealed the match after Balotelli was introduced shortly before the hour mark.

Milan doubled its lead against the run of play when Balotelli pulled the ball back and, although Robinho mishit his effort, Kaka slotted the ball home.

Moments after the Brazilian´s 101st goal, Cristante netted his first, with a fine angled drive into the bottom corner from outside the area.

Milan moved provisionally into 10th spot with its first win in four league matches. (AP)