Barcelona Edge Past Dortmund Despite Guirassy’s Heroics in Thrilling Quarter-Final
Wow, what a rollercoaster of a night in Dortmund! If you caught the game, you’ll know exactly what I mean – and if you didn’t, let me walk you through it, because this one had everything. Barcelona may have secured their place in the Champions League semi-finals, but don’t let that 5-3 aggregate scoreline fool you – it was far from a comfortable ride.
After dominating the first leg with a stunning 4-0 win at home, Barça arrived in Germany with one foot already in the next round. But anyone who knows the atmosphere of Signal Iduna Park, especially on a European night, knows you can never write Dortmund off – and they proved exactly why. Serhou Guirassy came to life with a brilliant hat-trick that breathed fire into what was starting to feel like a dead tie.
It all started early. A penalty in the 9th minute, confidently slotted home by Guirassy, rattled the visitors. Suddenly, memories of past Barça collapses – like against Roma and Liverpool – started surfacing. Dortmund were pressing high, the Yellow Wall was roaring, and Hansi Flick’s side looked genuinely shaken. They couldn’t hold the ball the way they usually do, and with Pedri on the bench until the hour mark, there was a serious lack of control in midfield.
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But just when it looked like the tide was turning, fate handed Barcelona a lifeline. Fermin López sent in a cross that was tragically turned into his own net by Ramy Bensebaini. That made it 2-1 on the night, but more importantly, it took the wind out of Dortmund’s sails – at least temporarily.
Still, this game wasn’t done. Julien Duranville injected some life off the bench for the hosts and helped set up Guirassy’s third goal with 14 minutes to go. There was even a moment of panic when Julian Brandt found the back of the net shortly after, but the offside flag spared Barça any more stress.
What’s interesting here is that Barcelona, even with all their attacking flair, showed some glaring defensive vulnerabilities. Dortmund managed to carve out 18 chances in this match alone – and 13 in the first leg too. Flick’s high defensive line and aggressive pressing can be thrilling when it works, but it’s a tightrope walk. A slightly better finishing side might’ve punished them even more.
So yes, Barcelona are through, and they can celebrate that – especially considering their 24-match unbeaten run remains intact. But with Inter or Bayern waiting in the semis, and with those defensive cracks now very visible, they’ve got some serious tightening up to do.
As Ronald Araújo put it after the game, “There are things we need to correct… but we’re in the semi-finals.” And that’s the story – Barça survive, but they’ve been warned.
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