Barcelona and Paris-Saint Germain have reserved their places in the semifinals of the Champions League, but were strongly tested by Borussia Dortmund and Aston Villa, respectively, in the second quarterfinals.
Barça achieved an aggregate victory of 5-3, despite losing 3-1 in Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday, with Serhou Guirsy hitting a hat-trick.
Holding a 4-0 advantage after a dominant performance in Catalonia, visitors sweated as Dortmund, and Guirassy almost achieved an impressive change.
Guirassy put Dortmund on the front with a panenka from the place, with 11 minutes at that time, and directed two goals cleared at the beginning of the second half.
Dortmund felt a sensation, but Barcelona responded, with Fermin López forcing Ramy Bensebaini to his own goal with just over half an hour.
Guirassy revived Dortmund’s belief with a third in the 76 -minute mark, and the final stages may have been different if Julian Brandt would not have been out of play before scoring with 11 minutes removed.
Despite losing his first competitive game in 2025, Barcelona has finished the semifinals, maintaining his dream of a remarkable alive acute, 10 years after completing the feat by winning the Champions League in Berlin.
Barcelona, considered the title of favorites, will face Inter Milan or Bayern Munich in the Final Four.
Clearly surpassed in the first leg, Dortmund will be inspired by Tuesday’s performance, among no less than goal’s candy.
Guinean, 29, who has spent most of his career bouncing between the first and second division in Germany and France, now has 13 goals in the Champions League this season, more than any other player.
“I am proud of what we could do. Barcelona is a strong team, but we fight until death. We show what we can do,” Guirassy told Amazon Prime.
Despite a great first leg advantage, coach Hansi Flick made in his commitment prior to the match to continue attacking, opting against resting any of his attackers Trident or Robert Lewandowski, Lamine Yamal or Raphinha.
With coach Niko Kovac admitting that Dortmund needed a “miracle” to reach the semifinals after the debacle in Catalonia, the task of the hosts became a little more difficult when the captain and the center of EMRE can be discarded with injuries only by the party.
But Dortmund ran out of the blocks, with Guirassy and his attack partner Maximilian Beier Goier Goer within the first 10 minutes before Pascal Gross was a victim of a clumsy foul in the Wojciech Szczesny box.
Guirassy took a step forward and was without fast, calmly unleashing a panenka to put the hosts in motion.
Dortmund cut Barcelona repeatedly opening without reward until part time, but did four minutes in the second half, with Guirassy in a Ramy Bensebaini assistance from a corner.
With the 81,355 Westfalenstadion de Dortmund that smelled blood, the family response of Barcelona was to send his attack on the right, and the movement was almost immediately.
After Yamal’s cross was halfway, Fermin López found himself in the teenager channel, whipping a pass to Lewandowski, who Bonsebaini hit his own network.
With the content of Barcelona to control possession when the clock ended up, Guirassy related the hopes of the hosts when he scored his third in the last quarter of an hour, exploiting from short distance after a lovely drip of the adolescent Julian Duranville.
Local fans exploded when Burns scored three minutes later, but the midfielder was out of play, allowing Barcelona to take a break.
Barcelona managed to endure, despite the waves of energetic Dortmund attacks in the final stages, to remain on the track of the acute.
PSG made to sweat by Aston Villa
The PSG kept his dream of a first title of the Champions League alive by squeezing Aston Villa 5-4 in aggregate after an exciting second leg of his quarterfinals, which the English team won 3-2.
Before 3-1 from the first leg, PSG seemed to have sealed the contest within the first half hour such as their fullbacks, Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes, scored from the counterattacks that flow to stun the multitude of Villa Park.
But Youri Tielemans revived hope with a deviated goal of 34 minutes before Villa surprised visitors at the beginning of the second half, with two goals in two minutes from John McGinn and Ezri Konsa.
Villa went ahead, taking out a series of outstanding salvages from the PSG goalkeeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma, to preserve the aggregate victory and allow his team to become a semifinal against Instte Madrid or Arsenal.
The PSG were the favorites to win the quarterfinals, given its advantage of the first leg and its recent form, including the sealing of a fourth consecutive title of Ligue 1 and reaching the French Cup final.
But the villas had no belief to themselves, especially at home where they were in an undefeated race of 17 games in all competitions. The hosts flew out, almost taking the front of a corner in an early burst of attacks.
However, the PSG hit the first blood in the 11th minute when Hakimi stroked the ball after the ultra -reliable goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez pushed him on his way.
Sixteen minutes later, Mendes snuggled in Villa’s second goal in the post at the end of another fast flow counterattack.
Tielemans’s goal in the first half seemed unlikely to balance the draw, but inspired Villa to get out in the second half, with McGinn letting fly from outside the box to score in the 55th minute, helped by a small deviation.
Then Konza hit Villas Third at night after being prepared with a bright dribble by Marcus Rashford.
One more goal would have put the level of Villa together, but Donnarumma challenged Rashford, Tielemans and then replaced Marco Asensio Dering a nerve final.
“Very proud of the boys, or what we have done tonight,” Konza said. “Obviously, the two goals at the beginning killed us. But we showed a great belief, a great character to return to the game. But unfortunately, it was not enough.”