Barcelona, Bayern advance to semis

Paris St Germain’s  Alex Costa  and Christophe Jallet  celebrate after the club’s Argentinian midfielder Javier Pastore scored during the UEFA Champions League quarter final second-leg football match against Barcelona at Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona yesterday.

DPA/Berlin

Bayern Munich and Barcelona advanced to the semi-finals of the Champions League yesterday to complete a German and Spanish last-four line-up.

Newly-crowned German champions Bayern grabbed a 2-0 win at Juventus thanks to a Mario Mandzukic header and a stoppage-time Claudio Pizarro goal for a 4-0 aggregate victory.

Barcelona were held 1-1 at home by Paris St Germain (PSG) but went through on the away goals rule with the quarter-final tie 3-3 on aggregate.

Bayern and Barca join Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid in tomorrow’s semi-final draw after Dortmund overcame Malaga and Real eliminated Galatasarary on Tuesday.

Four-time European champions Barcelona have reached the semi-finals for a record sixth successive time, going one better than Real who achieved the feat in the first five years of the old European Cup.

Meanwhile, Germany have two teams in the last four for the first time in Champions League history.

“It wasn’t easy for the players to motivate themselves four days after winning the (Bundesliga) championship,” Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes said.

PSG shocked Barca by taking the lead through Javier Pastore five minutes after the break, after a neat pass from Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

But Lionel Messi, starting on the bench following his hamstring injury, entered the fray in the 62nd minute to help set up Barca’s 71st-minute equaliser from Pedro Rodriguez.

Messi, who had suffered his injury after scoring in the 2-2 first-leg draw in Paris last week, got past two PSG players before David Villa back-heeled to Pedro who finished with an emphatic left-foot shot.

“Messi is a very important player and he put in a great effort,” Pedro said.