Barcelona survive to reach Champions League semi-finals

Barcelona have booked their place in the Champions League semi-finals after a 5-3 aggregate victory over Borussia Dortmund, who won 3-1 in the quarter-final second leg at Signal Iduma Park.

The hosts needed a strong start in their bid to overturn the first leg deficit, and they got it with the opening goal coming inside the first 11 minutes. Wojciech Szczesmy fouled Pascal Gross inside the penalty area, and that allowed Serhou Guirassy to find the back of the net from 12 yards – which he did with a Panenka effort.

Barcelona were able to avoid conceding for the remainder of the first half, but just minutes into the second period, Dortmund brought the aggregate deficit back to within two. And it was Guirassy that found the back of the net again as he headed home from close range following a corner.

Dortmund started to up the tempo after that, but just minutes later, they were hit with a sucker punch as Barcelona got a goal back. Fermin Lopez delivered the ball from the right, and it was turned into his own net by unfortunate defender Ramy Bensebaini.

That was a big blow for Dortmund, although they did manage to get another goal on 75 minutes to make it 5-3 on aggregate. A poor clearance from Ronald Araujo came to Guirassy a six yards out, and he made no mistake to complete his hat-trick – and in the process, he overtook Raphinha to become the Champions League’s top goalscorer.

Fortunately, Barcelona were able to see the match out as Dortmund ran out of steam. It means that Hansi Flick’s side will be in the last four of the Champions League, where their opponent will be Inter Milan or Bayern Munich – they play the second leg of their quarter-final on Wednesday.