Barcelona flirted with disaster before eventually booking their place in the Champions League semi-finals with a 5-3 aggregate win over Borussia Dortmund.

The Spanish champions came into Tuesday’s quarter-final second leg with a commanding 4-0 lead, yet allowed a spirited Dortmund side to rattle their cage and spent the final 10 minutes defending frantically.

Serhou Guirassy was the star of the evening, netting a hat-trick — after scoring two against Barcelona earlier this season — but it is Hansi Flick’s side who progress, with Bayern Munich or Inter awaiting in the next round.

The Athletic’s Jack Lang, Seb Stafford-Bloor and Anantaajith Raghuraman assess the key moments.

Frantic start unsettles cruising Barca

Given that the first leg of this tie was about as competitive as an afternoon nap, Barcelona could be forgiven for approaching the return match with a degree of confidence. It looked, on paper, like a simple case of turning up, doing the basics and focusing on the challenges to come further down the line.

Dortmund, though, had other ideas. Niko Kovac’s side started like a house on fire, chasing every ball and swarming forward at every opportunity. Maximilian Beier went close with an early effort. Guirassy spurned two presentable chances before converting from the penalty spot. The excellent Pascal Gross saw a goal chalked off for offside. Karim Adeyemi, effervescent, geed up a crowd that didn’t really need it. 

Barcelona were completely rattled. Ronald Araujo and Frenkie de Jong gave the ball away cheaply. Gavi ran around like a busy little dog, not in a good way. Even the attackers were off it: Raphinha kept going down blind alleys and Lamine Yamal’s passing was uncharacteristically scattershot.

The match calmed down after 20 minutes or so, but only really because Dortmund lost momentum. It was telling that the start of the second half followed a similar pattern: the home side taking swings, Barcelona ahead on the count but punch-drunk and swaying as Guirassy nodded home from close range. 

Ramy Bensebaini’s own goal looked like a full stop but wasn’t. Barcelona’s defence jellified for a third time, allowing Guirassy to complete his hat-trick. Julian Brandt had an effort chalked off by the assistant referee. The dying stages — fraught, stretched, dizzying — felt like a slow descent into psychodrama. The final whistle came as a relief. 

This is knockout football. You don’t get bonus points for doing things the easy way, but there was much for the other remaining sides in the Champions League to pore over here. Barcelona are unplayable at their best, but they are also vulnerable.

Jack Lang

Guirassy grabs a hat-trick, but should it have been more?

Nobody had a more eventful tie than Guirassy. Across the two games, there has been so much to admire about his all-around game. He’s a far more skilful player than he’s often given credit for and that showed again on Tuesday, with smart pirouettes and turns in deep positions and clever use of the ball at the centre of Dortmund’s attack.

But life as a centre-forward at this level is unforgiving. Guirassy took his penalty with staggering class in the first half and, after fine work from Julien Duranville, re-awakened the Westfalenstadion by crashing home a second to make it 3-1 with 15 minutes left.

But it will likely be the chances that he missed that live longest in the memory. The two in the first game in Barcelona, which would have made that night more respectable, and two more in the first half in Germany, before his penalty, when better finishing could really have dizzied a disorientated Barcelona.

That’s a tough reality. He did as much as any Dortmund player to get them back into this quarter-final but was as culpable as any for it never quite being within reach.

Seb Stafford-Bloor

Encouragement in defeat for Dortmund

Ultimately, this was not good enough from Dortmund, but still a performance and a night they needed. They went out on their shield, at least. 

There were times when Barcelona looked genuinely fragile and when, especially in the first half, Dortmund appeared that they might create a chance any time they drove forward. Had Julian Brandt’s goal to make it 4-1 survived the offside flag and counted, goodness knows what might have happened next.

A bittersweet observation is that a more efficient team — one that was a little colder in front of goal — might well have wiped out the first-leg deficit. 

Still, within its context, this was a triumph for Dortmund because this team’s flaws are not what frustrate their fans. Most often, it’s the lack of character and urgency that is bemoaned and makes them so inferior to Dortmund teams of the past.

Systemically, they were better, too. Kovac abandoned the back four he used in Spain, reinstating a 3-4-3 that provided a lot more security around the edges of his defence, which were so exposed in Barcelona.

The midfield was more balanced. A fit-again Felix Nmecha and Pascal Gross carried and picked their passes nicely. For an hour, Gross was the best player on the pitch. Up front, Max Beier and Karim Adeyemi were a huge problem, duelling nicely around Serhou Guirassy.

So this wasn’t the miracle they needed to qualify for the semi-finals, but it was a Dortmund who stirred their home crowd and — most importantly — worked, in both senses of the word.

Seb Stafford-Bloor

De Jong’s improved composure crucial

Barcelona’s poor start to both halves was heavily dictated by their inability to escape Dortmund’s four-man high press. Given Ronald Araujo’s limitations in possession and Pau Cubarsi playing on the left side of central defence to accommodate the Uruguayan, Barcelona struggled to play out from the back. 

Frenkie De Jong repeatedly showed for the ball but had limited options, repeatedly playing it out wide to the full-backs, who booted it forward or misplaced their passes. The Dutch international did not do himself many favours either, looking lax in possession at times and unsuccessfully appealing for fouls when he was outmuscled by Dortmund’s midfielders. All of that resulted in him losing possession seven times in the first half.

The second half brought a marked improvement. De Jong showed much more composure in possession, twice flicking the ball over an onrushing Dortmund player and collecting it on the other side in his own half to retain possession. His composure was crucial to Barcelona wrestling control back after going 2-0 down and creating openings, including Bensebaini’s own goal.

Pedri’s arrival seemed to make his job easier and Barcelona seemed to be heading for a comfortable victory before Guirassy’s hat-trick goal made for a nervous final 15 minutes.

Anantaajith Raghuraman

What next for Dortmund?

Sunday, April 20: Borussia Monchengladbach (Home), Bundesliga, 4.30pm UK, 11.30am in ET

What next for Barcelona?

Saturday, April 19: Celta Vigo (Home), La Liga, 3.15pm UK, 10.15am in ET

(Top photo: Pau Barrena/AFP via Getty Images)