Sarries steal victory at the death
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Argentina centre Marcelo Bosch kicked a last-gasp penalty to hand Saracens a dramatic 12-11 victory over Racing-Metro in Sunday's European Champions Cup quarterfinal
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This has set up a semifinal showdown with Clermont.
Clermont, who put Northampton to the sword 37-5 on Saturday, will host the last-four clash in St Etienne's 39,000-capacity Geoffroy Guichard stadium.
Clermont – losing finalists in 2013 – will be seeking revenge after being on the wrong end of a 46-6 hammering by Saracens in last year's semifinal.
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The second semifinal will feature three-time champions Leinster, who beat Bath 18-15, against either defending champions Toulon or Wasps, playing later.
Charlie Hodgson opened the scoring for last season's beaten finalists Saracens with a sixth-minute penalty, with very little difference between two sides well drilled in defence in the opening exchanges.
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Home worries were eased when Saracens' Scotland international Jim Hamilton, deputising for injured captain Alistair Hargreaves in the second row, was yellow-carded for cynically failing to release the ball close to the line.
Racing's Irish flyhalf Jonathan Sexton, who had never lost an European knockout match having guided Leinster to the title three times, kicked for the corner.
From the resulting line-out the powerful Racing pack rolled into midfield, scrumhalf Maxime Machenaud peeling off to crash over for a try from short range.
Sexton's conversion came back off the post and Hodgson then missed two kickable penalties as the kickers struggled with a downfield wind at the Yves-du-Manoir stadium.
Racing's hard-hitting midfield defence and setpiece superiority threatened to overwhelm Saracens, but the London club were aided by the Parisians' lack of discipline and a number of turnovers.
Saracens then had their first real try-scoring chance, wing Chris Ashton threading through a cross-field grubber that Chris Wyles just failed to latch onto with the whitewash beckoning.
Hodgson nailed a second penalty on the stroke of half-time after Antonie Claassen's indiscretion at a ruck to leave it 6-5 to the visitors at the interval.
Alex Goode took over the kicking duties from Hodgson and made no mistake with his first effort.
Machenaud then kicked two penalties to put Racing into a one-point lead, but a careless ruck infringement would prove costly, Bosch stepping up and booting a 43-metre penalty with aplomb to put Saracens into the last four.
Man of the match: Brice Dulin was exciting from the back, as was Dimitri Szarzewski when he got going. Jackson Wray was bust for Saracens and the Vunipola tried hard all day. In the end Maxime Machenaud deserves the award for his overall game, from his runs, passes and goal kicking – and the all important try.
Scorers:
For Racing Metro:
Try: Machenaud
Pens: Machenaud 2
For Saracens:
Pens: Hodgson 2, Goode, Bosch
Yellow card: Jim Hamilton (Saracens, 26 – cynical play, not rolling away at the ruck)
Teams:
Racing Métro: 15 Brice Dulin 14 Juan Imhoff, 13 Henry Chavancy, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Teddy Thomas, 10 Jonny Sexton, 9 Maxime Machenaud, 8 Antonie Claassen, 7 Camille Gerondeau, 6 Wenceslas Lauret, 5 Francois van der Merwe, 4 Luke Charteris, 3 Luc Ducalcon, 2 Dimitri Szarzewski (captain), 1 Eddy Ben Arous.
Replacements: 16 Virgile Lacombe, 17 Julien Brugnaut, 18 Brian Mujati, 19 Fabrice Metz, 20 Thibault Dubarry, 21 Mike Phillips, 22 Johan Goosen, 23 Alexandre Dumoulin.
Saracens: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Marcelo Bosch, 12 Chris Wyles, 11 David Strettle, 10 Charlie Hodgson, 9 Richard Wigglesworth (captain), 8 Billy Vunipola, 7 Jacques Burger, 6 Jackson Wray, 5 Jim Hamilton, 4 George Kruis, 3 Petrus Du Plessis, 2 Jamie George, 1 Mako Vunipola.
Replacements: 16 Schalk Brits, 17 Richard Barrington, 18 James Johnston, 19 Maro Itoje, 20 Kelly Brown, 21 Matt Hankin, 22 Neil De Kock, 23 Nick Tompkins.
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant referees: Ian Davies (Wales), Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
TMO: Derek Bevan (Wales)
