Giant kick sees Bordeaux-Begles squeeze past Racing 92 to reach maiden Champions Cup semi-final

Bordeaux-Begles are through to the Heineken Champions Cup semi-finals for the first time after the kicking of Matthieu Jalibert secured them a dramatic 24-21 victory over Racing 92 at Stade Chaban-Delmas.

All of the hosts’ points came via Jalibert penalties, with his eighth sealing the win right at the end.

The first half started with Racing’s Camille Chat having to be replaced due to injury, before a Maxime Machenaud penalty and Antoine Gibert drop goal, either side of a reply from Jalibert, saw them lead 6-3.

Jalibert registered two more penalties to put Bordeaux 9-6 ahead, then Machenaud scored one and missed another to leave the scores level heading into the interval.

After the break, Machenaud twice edged Racing ahead with further penalties, with Jalibert responding in kind each time.

Jalibert’s sixth successful kick came soon after, but he then hit an effort wide and Teddy Iribaren was able to draw things level once more as his penalty made it 18-18.

The same pattern followed as Jalibert put Bordeaux in front again in the 74th minute, before Iribaren made it 21-21 in the 79th.

Jalibert then had the final say, converting from seven metres inside the Bordeaux half to take his personal points tally in this season’s competition to 63 and send his side through to the last four.