Soccer-Palermo's quickfire hat-trick sends Boca through
RIO DE JANEIRO, May 22 (Reuters) - Martin Palermo scored a first-half hat-trick to take champions Boca Juniors into the Libertadores Cup semi-finals on Wednesday while Fluminense ousted Brazilian champions Sao Paulo with an injury-time goal.
Boca, held 2-2 at home by Mexico's Atlas last week, hit back to win 3-0 away and qualify 5-2 on aggregate on another night of Libertadores drama.
Fluminense went through after Washington's header in the second minute of injury time gave them a 3-1 win at the Maracana against their fellow Brazilians for a 3-2 aggregate victory.
Until then, Adriano's sixth goal of the competition had looked set to take Sao Paulo through on away goals.
Palermo produced an extraordinary 18-minute burst in Guadalajara, where he missed an open goal during a 3-1 defeat to the same opponents in the group stages.
Boca broke through in the 20th minute when playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme slipped a pass through to Palermo, who scored with a shot which Bava got a hand to but could not stop.
In the 34th minute, Riquelme set Rodrigo Palacio free with a crossfield pass and he fed Palermo who clipped it clinically past Bava.
Four minutes later, the famously erratic Palermo, who once missed three penalties in the same game for Argentina against Colombia, scored with an exquisite left-foot chip from the edge of the area. Continued...
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