Borussia Dortmund defeated Barcelona 3-1 in Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final second leg encounter.
Serhou Guirassy’s hat-trick propelled the Bundesliga side to historic win at the Signal Iduna Park, however, they failed to progress to the semi-final.
After securing a commanding 4-0 win in the first leg at Camp Nou, the Catalans arrived in Germany full of confidence – but they were quickly rattled in the 11th minute when the Guinea international calmly slotted home a penalty, awarded after Wojciech Szczesny brought down Pascal Gross in the box.
Five minutes into the second half, the hosts doubled their lead as the African forward finished confidently after being set up by Ramy Bensebaini.
However, the Algerian international went from hero to villain in the 54th minute, inadvertently turning the ball into his own net as Hansi Flick’s men pulled one back.
Refusing to back down, Dortmund kept pressing and were rewarded in the 76th minute when Guirassy completed his hat-trick, becoming the first African player to score at least 12 goals in a single Champions League season — surpassing the previous 10-goal mark set by Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané in Liverpool’s 2017–18 campaign.
Despite their dominant display, the German top-flight side were eliminated with a 5-3 aggregate loss. They will now turn their focus to league matches, aiming to secure a spot in Europe next season.
Barcelona, still on track for a historic treble, will face either Real Madrid or Arsenal in the semi-finals as they aim to end their decade-long European trophy drought.
Their last triumph came in the 2014–15 season when they defeated Juventus 3–1 in the final at the Olympiastadion in Berlin on June 6, 2015.
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