Borussia Dortmund were unable to recover from a first-leg thrashing by Barcelona to reach the Champions League semi-finals, despite winning an entertaining return tie thanks to a Serhou Guirassy hat-trick
Barcelona appeared to have all-but confirmed their place in the last four for the first time since 2019 following their crushing 4-0 win at home.
But Dortmund put up a brave effort to come so close to a stunning turnaround in a dramatic second leg at the Signa Iduna Park.
Guirassy cheekily chipped a ‘Panenka’ penalty over Wojciech Szczesny in the 11th minute after the Polish keeper had brought down Pascal Gross in the penalty area.
The Guinea striker then halved the deficit four minutes after the break, but Dortmund’s dreams looked to have been dashed when Ramy Bensebaini turned the ball into his own goal just five minutes later to give the Spanish side a three-goal lead on aggregate.
Guirassy completed his hat-trick in the 76th minute by turning in a poor clearance into the roof of the Barcelona net.
Substitute Julian Brandt then broke clear to shoot past Szczesny, but his side’s celebrations were cut short as he was deemed to have strayed offside.
It was a fabulous fightback, however Barcelona held on to reach the semi final of the competition for the first time since they let slip a three-goal lead in Liverpool’s famous second-leg comeback at Anfield six years ago.
They are set to face either Inter Milan or Bayern Munich, with the Italian side taking a 2-1 lead back to the San Siro for the second leg on Wednesday.