Barcelona and Paris St. Germane booked their locations in the Champions League semifinals, but were frequently tested by Borussia Dortmund and Aston Villa in the second leg of the quarterfinals, respectively.
Barca won 5-3 overall despite losing 3-1 at Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday.
The visitors, who took a 4-0 lead after a dominant performance in Catalonia, sweated out as Dortmund, with Guaracci almost pulling away from the stunning turnaround.
Guirassy put Dortmund forward from the scene with Panenka, spending 11 minutes and heading for two goals early in the second half.
Dortmund felt a sense, but Barcelona fought back, and Fermin Lopez pushed Ramy Bensbein into his own goal with more than 30 minutes left.
Guirassy rekindled Dortmund’s beliefs with a third on the 76th mark. And if Julian Brandt wasn’t offside before scoring with 11 minutes remaining, the final stage could have been different.
Despite losing their first competitive game in 2025, Barcelona continues to live out their amazing high-pitched dreams, 10 years after they reached the semi-finals and completed the feat last in Berlin by winning the Champions League.
Dortmund’s Guinean Forward, Serhou Guirassy scored the opening goal left from a penalty spot past Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny in Barcelona [Pau Barrena/AFP]
Barcelona is considered a favorite of the title and will face either Intermilan or Bayern Munich in the Final 4.
Dortmund will definitely increase range in the first leg and will draw inspiration from Tuesday’s performance.
The 29-year-old Guinean, who bouncing off most of his career between Germany and France’s first and second divisions, has 13 Champions League goals this season than any other player.
“I’m proud of what we can do. Barcelona is a strong team, but we fought to the point of our deaths.
Despite a big lead, coach Hansi Flick successfully made his pre-match pledge to continue his offensive, opposing the rest of either Robert Lewandowski, Ramin Yamal or Rafinha’s offensive trident.
Coach Nico Kobak admits that Dortmund needs a “miracle” to reach the semi-finals after the Catalan catastrophe, so the hosts’ job became a bit more difficult when captain and centre-back Emre Can were ruled out with injuries just before the match.
However, Dortmund competed from the block, with Guillasy and strike partner Maximilian Beyer approaching 10 minutes before the opening before Pascal Gross became the victim of a clumsy foul in the box by Wojciech Szczesny.
Guirassy went up and calmly unleashed Panenka to get a host.
Dortmund repeatedly opened Barcelona until halftime without a reward, but then counted four minutes into the second half, with Guirassy heading from the corner to Ramy Bensebaini assist.
With Dortmund’s 81,355 powerful Westfalenstadion smells, Barcelona’s familiar response was to send an attack to the right.
After Yamal’s cross was half-cleaned, Fermin Lopez found himself on the teenager’s channel and whipped a pass towards Lewandovsky, who had Bensebaini crashed into his net.
To control ownership when Barcelona content beats the watch, Guaracy praises the hosts’ hopes when he took third place in the last quarter of an hour after a fun dribbling from teenage winger Julian Duranville.
When Brandt scored three minutes later, the home fans erupted, but the midfielder was offside and Barcelona allowed a breather.
Barcelona was able to maintain the treble trajectory despite the waves of energetic Dortmund attacks in the final stages.
Made by Aston Villa with sweat
PSG continued to live their dream of their first Champions League title by narrowing Aston Villa 5-4 totally 5-4 after the thrilling second leg of the quarterfinal, where the English side won 3-2.
3-1 from the first leg, PSG appeared to have sealed the contest within the first 30 minutes. Their predatory fullbacks Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes scored from two flowing counterattacks to surprise the crowds of Villa Park.
However, Youri Tielemans revived hope with a 34-minute biased goal. Villa then surprised visitors early in the second half, scoring two goals in two minutes from John McGinn and Ezri Konsa.
Villa poured forward and pulled out a series of outstanding saves from PSG goalkeeper Genre Luigi Donnaruma to maintain the overall victory and allow his team to move into the semi-finals against Real Madrid or Arsenal.
PSG was a hot favorite to win the quarterfinals considering first leg advantage and recent form, including sealing off the fourth straight league 1 title and reaching the French Cup final.
But the Villa was not lacking conviction, especially at her home, where she had run 17 unbeaten matches at all competitions. The host flew out and came out and flew around early in the attack to take the lead from the corner.
Aston Villa’s Ezri Consa misses the header when the home side presses the equalizer [Dan Istitene/Getty Images]
However, PSG hit his first blood in the 11th minute. Hakimi stroked the ball after Emiliano Martinez, Villa’s normally highly reliable goalkeeper, thrusts him into his path.
16 minutes later, Mendes curled at the second goal of the villa at the end of another fast counterattack.
Thierremans’ first half goal seemed unlikely to swing his tie, but urged Villa to raid him in the second half.
Consa then struck the third of the villa in the evening after being set up with a great dribble from Marcus Rashford.
Another goal was to tally the villa levels, but Donnaruma opposed Rashford, Thierremans, and later replaced Marcoa Sencio during the neurite finale.
“We’re extremely proud of the boys for what we did tonight,” Consa said. “Obviously, the two goals of the start killed us. But we showed a great belief, a great character to get back into the game. But unfortunately, that wasn’t enough.”
