At that stage it was hard to envisage any way back in an away fixture that Milan had not won since 2002. Inside the visitors' dressing room the manager, Massimiliano Allegri, chose not to chastise his players. Instead he went around them one-by-one, offering quiet words of encouragement – insisting that this game was not yet lost – but Kevin-Prince Boateng had no need for a pep-talk. The manager's message was right there in front of him – tattooed across the back of his own left hand. "Believe."
Boateng had begun the game as a substitute, ostensibly over a fitness complaint, though various reporters have speculated that his omission from the starting line-up was more a comment on the player's mental focus than any physical ailment. The Ghanaian has developed a reputation over the past year as one who is perhaps a little too fond of the Milan nightlife. "Good night in Portuguese is said 'boa noite'," notes Sebastiano Vernazza in today's Gazzetta dello Sport. "Milan's 'Boa' has been allowing himself a few good nights in the city."
Some have even sought to highlight the player's famous Moonwalk title celebrations as a turning point in the player's mindset. In truth that seems a bit tenuous – since the player had already been reprimanded along with Urby Emanuelson and Alexander Merkel for indulging in a big night out in March before an away trip to Palermo. But Corriere della Sera was not alone today in suggesting that his recent appointment of two personal bodyguards may be indicative of a man who is allowing the fame to go to his head.
The player himself has admitted in the past to not being as diligent as he might at times in his career. "I didn't even train sometimes I just thought 'yeah, I'm a big player now,'" he told Sabotage Times last year. "I took everything easy and didn't work hard and then I did the same when I got to Spurs. I thought they've paid £8m for me so of course they're going to play me."
But while Allegri and his staff are the only ones who truly know what goes on in training at Milanello, the player had seemed perfectly focused as he scored in the win over Bate Borisov on Wednesday. And as the journalist Carlo Pellegatti was pointed out to fellow reporters in the press box on Sunday, "[Ruud] Gullit chased after women like a madman. As long as he was still Gullit, there was no problem. Everyone would praise him, saying: 'Well done Ruud, do what seems right to you.'" It was only when the goals dried up, that the mood turned.
Either way, there certainly seemed little evidence of any physical fitness problem as Boateng hoicked an entire team on to his back and set about dismantling Lecce. Within six minutes of coming on he had already achieved more than the rest of Milan's front line put together, with three shots and a delicious goal, the ball swerving violently off his left boot and into the far top corner as he met an Antonio Cassano cross inside the area. Within 18 minutes he had a hat-trick and Milan were level.
The second goal was not half bad either, exploding off Boateng's right and into the roof of the net from just outside the D. By the time he had forced in the third from close range, Lecce's spirit was broken. Milan's eventual winner, a header from Mario Yepes, felt entirely inevitable.
"Was I angry [at being left on the bench]?" mused Boateng – apparently only the second player in the history of Serie A to score a hat-trick after coming on as a substitute. "I never look backwards, I am happy to have scored three goals and to have taken the match-ball home with me but above all I am happy with the team's win. It was an incredible match, but now we are closer to the leaders."
