Serhou Guirassy’s opportunistic hat-trick gave Barcelona an almighty scare, but Rami Bensebaini’s own goal proved decisive as Borussia Dortmund won their UEFA Champions League quarter final second leg 3-1, but exited 5-3 on aggregate. Barcelona, unexpectedly poor on the night, will play either Internazionale of Milan or Bayern Munich in the last four.
After being hammered 4-0 away from home, Dortmund needed a fast start at the Signal Iduna Park and they got it when Wojciech Szczęsny in the Barcelona goal fouled Pascal Gross after a through ball from Karim Adeyemi. Guirassy dinked a cool penalty down the middle, but try as they might, Dortmund couldn’t add to that goal in the first half.
But four minutes after the restart, the yellow wall at the famous stadium was roaring. Daniel Svensson’s corner was nodded back across goal by Bensebaini, and Guirassy finished emphatically. Barcelona were wobbling then, with no rhythm or fluency to their passing and their vaunted front threat posing only a sporadic threat.
Relief came from an unexpected quarter. Fermin Lopez drove down the right and low cross was deflected into his own net by Bensebaini, who couldn’t sort his feet out in time. That concession visibly deflated Dortmund, but after a spell of Barcelona pressure, they struck again.
The 18 year old Julien Duranville jinked towards the six-yard-box, and his ball in was poorly cleared by Ronald Araujo. Guirassy, who had misplaced his shooting boots in the first leg, was once again lethal from close range.
That set up a frenetic finale, with Barcelona taking off Lamine Yamal in a bid to protect what they had. Guirassy finished his Champions League campaign with 13 goals, but the damage done in the first leg couldn’t quite be undone.