Challenge Cup: Catalans Dragons 18-22 Salford Red Devils

Dan Sarginson scored Salford's first try to get them back in the game

Dan Sarginson's try in golden point extra-time saw Salford beat Catalans to reach the Challenge Cup semi-finals.

Salford never led in normal time after Catalans opened up an early 12-0 lead through Fouad Yaha and James Maloney.

But they hit back through quickfire tries from Sarginson and Krisnan Inu to only trail by two points at the break.

Matt Whitley extended Catalans' lead but James Greenwood's try and an Inu penalty levelled the scores before Sarginson's dramatic winning effort.

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It was a remarkable comeback from last season's Grand Finalists, who defended valiantly throughout but looked set to be made to pay for a succession for errors throughout the game.

That included a nightmare start when Inu booted the kick-off straight out of play to hand the 2018 winners field position, which ultimately resulted, after the concession of another penalty, in the Dragons spreading play wide to put Yaha in at the corner.

Only a stunning recovery tackle from England centre Kallum Watkins, making his Red Devils debut after joining from Toronto, denied Sam Tomkins a second Catalans try, which finally arrived when Maloney drove over as the French side's pressure told.

But out of nothing Salford scored twice in the space of a few minutes to get back into the game. Sarginson seized on a perfectly-timed offload from Inu to go in at the corner, and was followed in by the former New Zealand international after a floated Kevin Brown pass created space.

Salford lost Pauli Pauli to the sin-bin for a high challenge on Maloney and were punished after a period of intense defence as Whitley wriggled through.

The Red Devils responded again as Greenwood reached for the line to score, and they levelled the score at 18-18 with only minutes left when Inu kicked a penalty after Sam Kasiano was sent to the sin-bin.

Inu twice missed with drop-goal attempts in the closing seconds of normal time but Salford finally won it barely 90 seconds into the first period of extra-time when Sarginson ran in unopposed.

'Nobody to blame but ourselves' - post-match reaction

Salford coach Ian Watson: "It's a great result for us. We went 12-0 down early and we've been in that position recently where other teams have come back and caught us on the hop. We managed to reverse that tonight.

"In the first 20 minutes they were dominating field position but I thought the way we coped with that was really good.

"We were a lot more resilient defensively. In the first 20 minutes of both halves we were poor but we showed when we hold the ball we can score points.

"It was all about the boys sticking with the process and backing each other. There were a few scrambled efforts in defence, their attitude to defence was spot on and that's what ultimately won us the game."

Catalans coach Steve McNamara: "We've nobody to blame but ourselves. We were eight points up with 20 minutes to go and stopped playing.

"We stopped being physical, gave away a soft penalty and then a try at the end.

"We started the game reasonably well and were in control for 30 minutes but then let couple of tries in after missing one-on-one tackles.

"We gave Salford some momentum and they took that into the second half as well."

Catalans: S. Tomkins, Tierney, Langi, Folau, Yaha, Maloney, Drinkwater, Bousquet, McIlorum, Moa, Whitley, Garcia, Casty.

Interchanges: Jullien, Baitieri, Goudemand, Kasiano.

Sin-bin: Kasiano (76)

Salford: Sarginson, Inu, Welham, Watkins, Williams, Lolohea, Brown, Dudson, Lussick, Yates, Greenwood, McCarthy, Flanagan.

Interchanges: Pauli, Ikahihifo, Burke, Kear.

Sin bin: Pauli (45)

Referee: Ben Thaler