Hamburg, April 17 (Inditop) SV Hamburg set up an all-German UEFA Cup semi-final tie against Werder Bremen despite losing 2-1 to Manchester City Thursday while Ukrainian clubs Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kiev will meet in the other semi after prevailing in their quarter-final ties.
Leading 3-1 from the first leg, Hamburg looked to have one foot in the last four of the competition when Paolo Guerrero took advantage of City’s failure to clear a low cross from Jonathan Pitroipa to fire a low shot low into the corner after 12 minutes Thursday.
However, City had a stroke of luck five minutes later when Piotr Trochowski was adjudged to have handled the ball in the area and Elano slotted the subsequent penalty home to make it 1-1.
Elano nearly put City in front on 43 minutes but the Brazilian’s free-kick came back off the woodwork. However, within five minutes of the restart the home side deservedly went in front when Felipe Caicedo collected a pass from Stephen Ireland before firing home.
Another Elano free-kick four minutes later came off a post as City looked to level the tie on aggregate but City’s hopes of a comeback died when Richard Dunne was sent off for a second bookable offence after bringing down Ivica Olic.
Martin Jol’s side will now meet Bundesliga rivals Werder Bremen, who fought back to draw 3-3 with Udinese and move into the last four 6-4 on aggregate.
Gokhan Inler opened the scoring for the Italians and although Diego equalized for Thomas Schaaf’s side on 28 minutes, a brace from Fabio Quagliarella made it 3-1 for Udinese to level the tie on aggregate.
Diego’s second of the night in the 60th minute reduced the deficit and although the Brazilian subsequently missed a penalty, Claudio Pizarro managed to get on the scoresheet to leave the match at 3-3.
Dynamo Kiev booked their place in the semi-finals thanks to a 3-0 defeat of French side Paris St Germain to progress by the same scoreline on aggregate.
The tie was finely balanced at 0-0 after the quarter-final first leg in France but the Ukrainians took control from the start at the Valeri Lobanovskiy stadium in Kiev, scoring twice in the opening 16 minutes.
Ismael Bangoura opened the scoring after just four minutes with a low shot and PSG goalkeeper Mickael Landreau punched the ball into his own net 12 minutes later to hand the home side a two-goal lead.
Ognjen Vukojevic completed the scoring for Kiev, slotting home after Landreau could only parry an Olexandr Aliyev free-kick into his path.
Kiev now meet Donetsk after Mircea Lucescu’s side beat Marseille 2-1 to progress 4-1 on aggregate.
Fernandinho put Shakhtar in front on the half-hour mark an although Ben Arfa pulled one back for Marseille two minutes before the break, Luiz Adriano netted a last-minute winner for the guests.
The semi-finals take place April 30 and May 7 with the final scheduled for May 20 in Istanbul.
rounak