May 3rd, 2025
Serhou Guirassy and Borussia Dortmund did something special in 2025 – they beat Barcelona, which no other team had done. But this win was not enough for them to get into the Champions League semifinals.
Even though Guirassy scored three goals, his team still lost. Dortmund beat Barcelona 3-1, which was Barcelona's first loss since December. However, this win was not enough to change the final score over two games, and they lost 5-3 in total.
After losing 4-0 in the first game of the quarterfinal, Dortmund had no pressure on Tuesday and attacked Barcelona from the beginning, surprising the visitors.
Barcelona coach Hansi Flick, who knows Dortmund well from his time in Germany, said he expected a difficult game in the second match because of the passionate home fans, even though his team was winning by four goals.
Flick told the broadcaster Amazon Prime, "I had a feeling this would happen. Today, we should say well done to Dortmund, they played a very good game, and well done to my team, they are in the semi-finals."
The match was unusually quiet for Barcelona's strong attackers, Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski. They had scored many goals in the Champions League this season, 12 for Raphinha and 11 for Lewandowski. Their best chance to score was a weak shot from Raphinha towards the Dortmund goalkeeper, Gregor Kobel.
Guirassy is very important for Dortmund, coach Niko Kovac said after a game where Guirassy became more famous and is now the top scorer in the Champions League this season. "Serhou needs his teammates to help him, just like all strikers do, and they helped him today."
Dortmund probably lost the quarterfinal in the first game. Also, their captain Emre Can and midfielder Carney Chukwuemeka could not play because they were injured earlier that day.
For a time, Guirassy made difficult things seem possible.
Guirassy had chances to score in the first game and missed two more early in Tuesday's match, but he scored from a penalty kick in the 11th minute after Barcelona's goalkeeper, Wojciech Szczesny, ran into Pascal Gross.
Guirassy scored with a header to make it 2-0 in the 49th minute, and then Ramy Bensebaini scored an own goal, which made the game much more difficult for Dortmund.
Guirassy used Ronald Araujo's mistake in defense to score his third goal with a strong shot from close up in the 76th minute. This made him the top scorer in the Champions League this season with 13 goals.
This gave Dortmund new hope of making a comeback in the Champions League, like Barcelona did against Paris Saint-Germain in 2017, but Barcelona kept their lead and won.
Barcelona will play against either Inter Milan or Bayern Munich in the semifinals. This is the first time they have been in the last four teams of the Champions League since the 2018-19 season. In the other game on Tuesday, PSG got to the semifinals by winning 5-4 in total against Aston Villa, even though they lost the second game 3-2.
Barcelona lost their first game in any competition since December 21. It was also their first loss in the Champions League since September. This was only the seventh loss in the 50 games Flick has been the coach. He had won his last seven games against Dortmund when he was coaching Barcelona and Bayern.
Dortmund might have to wait for some time before the Champions League song is played at their stadium again.
Last year, the team that came second in the Champions League is now eighth in the Bundesliga. They are six points away from the top four teams that can play in the Champions League next year.
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