Football: Hagi provides advantage for Barcelona

A cool piece of finishing from the Romanian Gheorghe Hagi helped Barcelona snatch a 2-2 draw at Bayern Munich last night, and give his side a good chance of reaching the Uefa Cup final.

With 13 minutes left of an exciting semi-final first leg, played in sleet and freezing temperatures, Hagi took advantage of a calamitous back-pass from Bayern's German international defender Markus Babbel to fire home with his left foot.

The goal was a huge blow to Bayern who had battled back after going a goal behind to Oscar Garcia's brilliant strike after 15 minutes. Oscar played a marvellous one-two with Jose Maria Bakero through the middle of the defence and hit the ball into the right-hand corner.

The German side, hoping to win their first European trophy for 20 years, responded with two goals in five minutes in the second half, the goals coming from Marcel Witeczek and Mehmet Scholl in the 52nd and 57th minutes.

In the other semi-final, Bordeaux won the away leg, beating Slavia Prague 1-0 with a goal from Christophe Dugarry in the seventh minute.