Barcelona held on against a Serhou Guirassy-inspired Borussia Dortmund to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League, despite losing 3-1 at the Westfalenstadion this evening, April 15.
It also ended Barcelona’s 2025 unbeaten run of 24 games.
Hansi Flick’s side led 4-0 from the first leg last week, but were quickly under pressure when Guirassy converted an early penalty, before Pascal Gross had a goal disallowed for offside.
Guirassy then pulled another goal back early in the second half, but Dortmund’s dreams were dashed soon after when Ramy Bensebaini put through his own net from Fermin Lopez’s dangerous delivery.
There was still time for Guirassy to complete his hat trick, but it was too little too late, as Barca progress 5-3 on aggregate, despite seeing their 24-game unbeaten run come to an end.
Barcelona will still be one of two red-hot favourites to win the competition, but Dortmund exposed the Catalan club’s limitations tonight.
Barca’s clinical front three of Lewandowski , Raphinha and prodigious teenager Yamal were stifled for most of the evening, as a raucous home support suffocated the visitors, and allowed Dortmund to get back into a tie that looked beyond them.
There was plenty of fortune about Barca’s solitary goal of the evening too, coming via an unfortunate own goal, but Barca have still shown enough this season to suggest this was just an off-night.
It will be Barca’s first semi-final in the competition since 2019, but Flick will hope seeing their lengthy unbeaten run coming to an end will not affect their pursuit of an extraordinary treble.
In England, Aston Villa threatened to pull off a stunning comeback against Paris St-Germain (PSG) before going out of the Champions League on a dramatic night at Villa Park.
Villa were attempting to overturn a 3-1 deficit to reach the semi-final but their hopes looked in tatters when they were two goals down inside the first half-hour.
Achraf Hakimi cashed in on Villa keeper Emiliano Martinez’s mistake to put PSG ahead, then Nuno Mendes doubled the French side’s lead to leave Villa needing to score at least four goals.
In a thunderous Villa Park atmosphere, Unai Emery’s team refused to yield and launched a magnificent response to put this hugely talented PSG side on the rack.
Youri Tielemans pulled one back after 34 minutes with a deflected shot before a second half of pure theatre unfolded in front a frenzied Villa Park.
Villa struck twice in two minutes to spark hopes of a remarkable revival, John McGinn scoring from 20 yards after 55 minutes before defender Ezri Konsa put them ahead on the night after fantastic work by Marcus Rashford.
And, as Villa’s belief grew, it took three crucial saves from PSG keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma to stop them drawing level in the tie.
He dived high to his left to magnificently claw away Rashford’s rising drive, then somehow turned out Tielemans’ header before saving at the feet of substitute Marco Asensio.
PSG managed to regain a measure of composure to hold on and will meet Arsenal or Real Madrid,who play their decisive second leg in Spain tomorrow, in the semi-final.
