Barcelona edged into the Champions League semi-finals after holding off Borussia Dortmund on April 15, 2025. The Catalan giants, expected to ease through after winning last week’s first leg 4-0, were stunned as Serhou Guirassy scored a hat-trick at Signal Iduna Park to give the German side hope of an unlikely recovery. Ultimately, Dortmund just had too much to do as Barca, boosted by an own goal from Ramy Bensebaini, held on to progress 5-3 on aggregate after a 3-1 loss on the night.
Dortmund needed to make a fast start to have any hope of overturning the deficit and did just that as they created a series of chances in the opening minutes. Guirassy and Daniel Svensson both called Wojciech Szczesny into action, and Karim Adeyemi missed the target. The attacking plan paid off after 11 minutes as Szczesny clumsily brought down Pascal Gross, and Guirassy calmly dinked home the resulting spot-kick.
Gross had the ball in the net soon after but it was ruled out for offside, and Bensebaini went close to another when his header drew a save from Szczesny. Barca struggled to gain a foothold, and Fermin Lopez wasted a rare opportunity when he mistimed a run after Dortmund gave away possession and was flagged offside.
Dortmund had another good chance when Maximilian Beier headed straight at Szczesny from a free-kick, and the keeper also denied Adeyemi with his feet. The hosts carried the momentum into the second half, and Szczesny produced a double save to deny Adeyemi and Gross. The pressure paid off in the 49th minute as Guirassy nodded home from close range after Bensebaini had headed back across goal following a corner.
That forced Barca to adopt an attacking approach themselves, and Lamine Yamal had an effort deflected wide. They then claimed the goal that settled any nerves as Lopez broke down the right and fired in a low cross which struck Bensebaini and rebounded into his own net.
Dortmund were noticeably deflated, and Barca started to assert more control. Raphinha cut inside and shot at Gregor Kobel. Yet Dortmund roused themselves for a final charge and pulled another back in the 76th minute after Julien Duranville brilliantly kept the ball in play out wide and whipped in a cross. Ronald Araujo’s poor clearance was pounced upon by Guirassy for his hat-trick.
Barca hearts were in mouths moments later when substitute Julian Brandt burst through the defence and fired in from a tight angle, but the offside flag was again raised. From there, Barca finally settled and saw out the closing moments to reach the last four for the first time in six years.
Serhou Guirassy has not even completed one season at Borussia Dortmund and he’s already re-written the history books. Dortmund needed a massive game from their summer recruit to have any hope of erasing a four-goal deficit in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie against Barcelona. Guirassy initially provided a faint glimmer of hope in the 11th minute when he scored from the penalty spot. Those hopes grew when he scored just four minutes into the second half to reduce the deficit to just two goals.
However, an own goal from Dortmund's Ramy Bensebaini proved to be the sucker punch and left them needing to score at least five goals on the night to keep the tie alive. Guirassy completed his hat-trick in the 76th minute to make it 5-3 on aggregate, but Barcelona survived to progress to the semi-finals.
It was also a perfect hat-trick from Guirassy as he scored one goal with his left foot, one with his right, and the other with his head. He was unsurprisingly named the player of the match. Despite Dortmund's heartbreaking exit, Guirassy could take some solace in the fact he achieved a feat not even superstar strikers Erling Haaland and Robert Lewandowski could match during their time at the club.
By netting a hat-trick against Barcelona, it took Guirassy's tally in this year's Champions League to 13 from 14 games. It left Lewandowski and Haaland in the dust, as their highest goal figure for Dortmund in a Champions League campaign was ten. Lewandowski achieved the feat during the 2012/13 season while Haaland did so in the 2020/21 campaign.
That's not the only slice of Champions League history Guirassy earned thanks to his scintillating hat-trick. By netting 13 goals, it means the Guinean is now the record holder for the most goals scored by an African player in a single Champions League campaign. He has now registered 15 Champions League goals in total having scored twice from four appearances during the 2020/21 season with Rennes.
Guirassy moved to the club last summer from Stuttgart for an estimated £15.4 million after he finished second in the Bundesliga golden boot charts to Harry Kane with an impressive haul of 28. Guirassy hasn't quite matched his goalscoring feats from last season, netting 15 goals from 25 league fixtures. However, it is emblematic of Dortmund's malaise this campaign as they languish down in eighth place in the Bundesliga, six points off the Champions League places.
Dortmund will look to use the win over Barcelona in the second leg as a springboard for their remaining five Bundesliga matches, with the next clash coming against Borussia Monchengladbach on Sunday.
Guirassy expressed his disappointment after the match, saying, "They're a great team, we're also a great team, we showed that today. It's a shame the gap was too big in the first leg." Dortmund defender Niklas Suele, who won the Champions League with Bayern Munich in 2020, agreed, stating, "that we messed it up in the first leg... the performance was too bad in Barcelona."
The German side looked to have made it 4-1 on the night through Julian Brandt with 11 minutes remaining, but the goal was disallowed for offside and Barcelona progressed 5-3 on aggregate. "I think it would've been an exciting last 10 minutes," said Dortmund midfielder Pascal Gross. "Until the last minute we played to show we believed so the stadium would believe in it. We're out because of the bitter game in Barcelona, but you can see we are good enough to go toe-to-toe with them."
