Serhou Guirassy scored a hat trick and still ended up on the losing side as Borussia Dortmund's 3-1 win over Barcelona wasn't enough to prevent a 5-3 aggregate loss to Barcelona in the Champions League quarterfinals Tuesday.
After being swept aside 4-0 in the first leg of the quarterfinal, Dortmund had nothing to lose and attacked Barcelona from the start, leaving the visitors off-balance.
Barcelona coach Hansi Flick, who has plenty of experience of facing — and beating — Dortmund from his time in the German league, said the passionate home crowd meant he'd expected a tough second leg despite his team's four-goal lead.
“I had a little bit of a feeling that something like this was coming,” Flick told broadcaster Amazon Prime. “Today you have to say congratulations to Dortmund, they played a very good game, and congratulations to my team, they're in the semifinals.”
Guirassy's game
Guirassy had missed chances in the first leg and spurned a couple more early in Tuesday's game but made no mistake from the penalty spot in the 11th minute after Barcelona goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny collided with Pascal Gross.
Guirassy's header made it 2-0 in the 49th minute before an own goal by Ramy Bensebaini made Dortmund's task even harder. Fermín López's low cross that in off Bensebaini's ankle — a double disappointment for Dortmund because the defender been crucial in the comeback attempt, assisting Guirassy’s second goal shortly before.
Guirassy seized on Ronald Araujo's defensive error to complete his hat trick with a powerful close-range shot in the 76th, in the process becoming the Champions League's top scorer this season on 13 goals.
It gave Dortmund fresh hope of completing what would have been one of the all-time great Champions League comebacks — one to rival Barcelona's against Paris Saint-Germain in 2017 — but Barcelona held on to progress.
Barcelona faces either Inter Milan or Bayern Munich in the semifinals, the first time it's reached the last four of the Champions League since the 2018-19 season. In Tuesday's other game, PSG reached the semifinals with a 5-4 aggregate win over Aston Villa despite losing the second leg 3-2.
Streaks broken
Tuesday’s game marked Barcelona’s first loss in all competitions since December, and its first Champions League loss since September. Flick had won all seven of his previous games against Dortmund in charge of Barcelona and Bayern.
Dortmund may have to wait a while until the Champions League anthem plays at its stadium again.
Last year’s Champions League runner-up is eighth in the Bundesliga with five games remaining, and six points off the four Champions League qualifying places.
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