Kevin-Prince Boateng scored the fastest hat-trick in 10 years and Mario Yepes notched a late winner as AC Milan came back from 3-0 down to beat Lecce 4-3 on Sunday. Milan were in disarray during a calamitous first 45 minutes and came into the break 3-0 down following goals from Guillermo Giacomazzi, a Massimo Oddo penalty and Carlos Grossmuller.
But Boateng came off the bench to fire a 14-minute treble and Yepes headed home seven minutes from time to earn Massimiliano Allegri's team an unlikely victory. "It was very important that we could win this game, it was unbelievable, we came back, I scored three goals," said man-of-the-match Boateng.
"It's a very good day for me, I will take this ball home and put it in an important place in my house.
"I was a bit injured on the knee and I think the coach wanted to give me a bit of a rest but we didn't play well in the first half so he told me to go out and try my best. "I'm very happy we won the game because it hasn't been easy for us this season but this win shows we can come back and we worked very hard."
Without injured centre-back Thiago Silva and the returning Philippe Mexes on the bench the champions could not have missed the pair more as they were a defensive shambles in the first period.
Milan's backline was nowhwere to be seen after just four minutes as Giacomazzi managed to head home Grossmuller's cross from inside the six yard box, beating hesitant goalkeeper Christian Abbiati to the ball.
The second came from the penalty spot after Abbiati was adjudged to have brought down Daniele Corvia as Milan failed in their attempts to clear a corner. Elsewhere Udinese went clear on their own at the top of the table with a 3-0 demolition of newly-promoted Novara.