LONDON: It was a disappointing Tuesday night for both Liverpool and Bayern Munich but there was joy for Barcelona and Paris St Germain.

Hull City shredded Liverpool’s slim hopes of Champions League qualification with a 1-0 win the English Premier League while Bayern’s bid for a trophy treble ended when they lost 2-0 on penalties to 10-man Borussia Dortmund in the German Cup semi-finals.

Hull captain Michael Dawson scored the only goal at the KC Stadium after 37 minutes, leaving Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool seven points adrift of fourth-placed Manchester United who occupy the final Champions League qualifying spot with four games of the season left to play.

“Our fight is to perform better through to the end of the season,” Rodgers told the BBC. “It was always going to be difficult for us [to make the top four]. The opportunity was tough this year in terms of where we were at as a team.”

Having been crowned Bundesliga champions on Sunday, German Cup holders Bayern failed to score any of their four penalties after a 1-1 draw following extra time as their hopes of repeating their 2013 treble were dashed.

“I am very proud of my team, we played very well,” said Bayern coach Pep Guardiola, whose side face Barca next week in the first-leg of their Champions League semi-final. “I congratulate Dortmund.”

Guardiola’s side were also hit by injuries to key personnel during the loss to Dortmund. Winger Arjen Robben is out for the season after tearing calf muscles while striker Robert Lewandowski has facial fractures and is a doubt for the Barca match.

Barca, meanwhile, are brimming with confidence after their star front three of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar, known as ‘MSN’, motored past 100 goals for the season to fire the La Liga leaders to a 6-0 rout of Getafe that provisionally stretched the gap over Real Madrid to five points.

Unlike Bayern, Barca remain on track to repeat repeating 2009’s historic treble of Champions League, La Liga and Copa del Rey titles under Guardiola and face Athletic Bilbao in the Copa final next month.

“The team is 100 percent committed, the fans, everyone,” Suarez told Spanish television. “We have an obligation to achieve great things and we are facing the most important phase of the season.”

PSG saw their hopes of the Champions League title ended by Barca last week in the quarter-finals but are on course for a domestic treble after midfielder Javier Pastore set up all three goals in their 3-1 win over Metz 3-1 to move three points clear of Olympique Lyon at the top of Ligue 1.

Laurent Blanc’s side have already won the French League Cup and have a date with second-tier Auxerre in the French Cup final.

“It is not an essential step towards the title,” said Blanc. “There are still four matches remaining and we have to take a lot of points. We are in a good place but that is not enough.”

Elsewhere, Inter Milan revived their hopes of qualifying for the Europa League with a 2-1 win at nine-man Udinese to move up to seventh in Serie A.

BARCELONA: (L to R) Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar celebrate after a goal during the La Liga match against Getafe at the Nou Camp.—AFP

Dawson timed his move to perfection, beating a hopeless Liverpool offside trap to power home a cross from Ahmed Elmohamady as Hull recorded their second successive victory to move four points clear of the relegation zone.

The match in Munich went into extra time after Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and cancelled out Robert Lewandowski first-half goal and the two teams were deadlocked 1-1 at the end of 90 minutes.

The shoot-out got off to a dramatic start when Philipp Lahm and Xabi Alonso both slipped to fire Bayern’s first two penalties over the bar.

Ilkay Gundogan and Sebastian Kehl converted theirs for Dortmund before Mario Goetze had his effort saved by goalkeeper Mitchell Langerak.

Dortmund captain Mats Hummels had his shot saved before Bayern shot-stopper Manuel Neuer hit the cross bar to send Dortmund to the May 30 final in Berlin against either VfL Wolfsburg or third-division Arminia Bielefeld.

Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar motored past 100 goals for the season to fire the La Liga leaders to a 6-0 rout of Getafe that stretched the gap over Real Madrid to five points on Tuesday.

At the Nou Camp, Messi opened the scoring from the penalty spot before teeing up Suarez to volley home and Neymar was left with the simple task of registering the 100th goal between the trio from Suarez’s pass as Barca went 3-0 up inside 28 minutes.

Xavi Hernandez and Suarez both struck before half-time and Messi scored again just after the restart as Barca moved to 84 points with four matches left, although second-placed Real have a game in hand .

Pastore lit up the Parc des Princes, setting up all three PSG goals for Marco Verratti, Edinson Cavani and Gregory van der Wiel as PSG moved to 71 points from 34 games, with Lyon on 68 and Monaco third with 62.

Verratti scored in the 25th minute with only his second league goal in 85 games for PSG before Cavani made it 2-0 in the 42nd and right back Van der Wiel added the third after Modibo Maiga pulled a goal back for Metz shortly after half-time.

Inter closed in on a European place next season after A penalty by Mauro Icardi and Lukas Podolski’s first league goal since moving on loan from Arsenal either side of Antonio Di Natale’s 205th Serie A strike saw them stretched their unbeaten run to five matches.

Inter moved up to seventh with 48 points, overtaking Torino and Genoa having played one game more, and temporarily sit just one point behind sixth-placed Fiorentina, who occupy the final European spot.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2015

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