Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain are through to the Champions League semifinals despite suffering defeats in Tuesday’s quarterfinal second legs.
Barca arrived in Germany with a commanding 4-0 first-leg lead over last season’s runners-up Borussia Dortmund. But the Catalans were given a scare in a 3-1 loss – their first defeat of the year – as Serhou Guirassy struck a hat trick for the hosts.
Barcelona’s only goal came via a Ramy Bensebaini own goal, enough to seal a 5-3 aggregate win and a place in the final four.
PSG took a 2-0 lead at Aston Villa, but the hosts roared back for a 3-2 victory. Villa came up one goal short of leveling the tie, as PSG advanced with a 5-4 aggregate win.
PSG will face the winner of Arsenal versus Real Madrid, while Barcelona will meet Inter Milan or Bayern Munich in the semifinals. Arsenal and Inter hold first-leg advantages heading into Wednesday’s second legs.
Hopes were high at Signal Iduna Park when Guirassy broke the deadlock in the 11th minute, giving Dortmund plenty of time to chase a miracle.
Pascal Gross was fouled in the box by Barca goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, and Dortmund were awarded a penalty, which Guirassy converted.
That marked his 11th Champions League goal of the season – a new club record in the competition, surpassing the 10 set by Robert Lewandowski and Erling Haaland.
The hosts came out firing in the second half, forcing Szczesny into two superb saves during a double chance from Karim Adeyemi and Gross.
From the resulting corner, however, the keeper couldn’t stop Guirassy’s header from finding the net in the 49th minute.
But Dortmund’s hopes faded quickly as Barcelona pulled one back just five minutes later when Bensebaini deflected Fermin Lopez’s low cross into his own goal.
Guirassy completed his hat trick in the 76th after latching onto a poor clearance from Ronald Araújo.
Dortmund still had time to dream of a comeback, but ultimately fell short and missed the chance to reach a second straight Champions League final.
This season’s final will be played in Munich – the same city where Dortmund lifted their only Champions League title in 1997.
“I’m proud of our performance. We showed what we can do. It’s sad that our journey is over,” Guirassy said.
Barcelona coach Hansi Flick admitted his team “didn’t play at our best today."
“But that was also down to Dortmund, who did really well. What the team has achieved in recent weeks is phenomenal. We’re now one step further, but we’re still a long way from the end.”
Goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez pushed Bradley Barcola’s low cross into the path of Achraf Hakimi, who found the left corner to give PSG the opener in the 11th minute.
It looked like the Parisians had one foot in the semifinals when Nuno Mendes doubled the lead in the 27th.
But Villa refused to back down. Youri Tielemans’s effort took a deflection before bouncing in for the hosts’ first goal in the 34th.
Captain John McGinn added a second in the 55th with a stunning strike from distance. Two minutes later, Ezri Konsa converted from a Marcus Rashford pass to complete the comeback.
Villa pushed for one more goal to force extra time, but PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma made several big saves to keep them at bay.
“He made some excellent saves. We showed we can compete at the highest level, and we want to do it again next season,” Konsa told Prime Video.
“I’m very proud of the boys and what we did. We showed great belief and character to get back into it. We won the second leg, but it wasn’t enough,” he added.
