Borussia Dortmund says goodbye to the Champions League – but impressively. The BVB won the second leg in the quarter -finals against FC Barcelona 3-1 (1-0) on Wednesday (April 15th, 2025) and left in the first leg after the 0: 4. However, he got a lot of confidence for the final sprint in the Bundesliga.
Serhou Guirassy was the outstanding man on the scoreboard with a triple pack (11th minute, 49th and 77th), but the entire team showed the best game of BVB in the current season. An own goal of Ramy Bensebaini (54th) ensured that Dortmund meanwhile the belief in the miracle was somewhat lost. The team of coach Niko Kovac ended the Champions League season in such a way that the desire for the next few weeks should be great.
“I am proud of what we did. Barcelona is a strong team, but we are also strong. We fought and showed what we can do until the end”said Guirassy at “Amazon Prime”, but also emphasized – because he leads the scorer list with 13 goals – also: “It’s a shame that the way is over now.”
BVB striker Guirassy turns like against Bologna
Kovacs to Hansi Flick had emphasized in advance that his team would “No game on the light shoulder” take. He therefore waived a rotation that the enormous cushion would have justified. Only midfield engine Pedri received a break from his stars, but with Gavi, Flick brought a player who does not necessarily stand for a major deterioration. But Flick had the problem that the players did not confirm his attitude.
BVB overrun the guests in the first few minutes of the game. Guirassy already missed two top -class chances in the fifth and seventh minute, then he got a third after Barcelona’s goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny committed a clear foul on Pascal. Guirassy started the penalty and was lucky that the Szczesny apparently did not expect that he would repeat what he had already done against FC Bologna (1: 2) in the group phase of this Champions League season.
Since Guirassy also chipped the ball at 0-0 and almost failed. BVB consultant Matthias Sammer described the attempt as “Panenka for the poor”. In fact, the Dortmund striker put back into the middle and was allowed to cheer again because Szczesny had decided to move into a corner – 1-0 (11th) and still a lot of time to work at the miracle.
BVB is trying to do the miracle that only Barca was successful
Only one team had managed to get ahead in the history of the Champions League after a 0: 4 first leg defeat-and that was BVB opponent Barca. In the 2016/17 season, the Catalans won the second leg 6-1 and now in the first few minutes they gave the impression that she could now witness that a team will make it again.
But after the 0: 1, Barca largely managed to bring more control into the game and even came to some promising attacks. However, the necessary seriousness seemed to be missing in order to play them out as much as in the first leg. And so Dortmund still had the great chance of the second goal when Karim Adeyemi failed on Szczesny (37th). What made this opportunity so big was not the parade, but that Adeyemi missed it to enable the simple bullet with a Maximilian Beier cross pass.
Dortmund overrun Barcelona again – until Bensebaini hits incorrectly
The second half then began like the first – Dortmund overwhelmed Barcelona with his overwhelming will to ensure a spectacular evening. In the 48th minute, Adeyemi and Pascal Groß still failed on Szczesny, but after the following corner Ramy Bensebaini put the second goal from Guirassy from the shortest distance (49.).
It was an exhilarating evening in Dortmund for 53 minutes, but then Bensebaini undergone a mishap that almost destroyed the hopes of the black and yellow. After a cross from Fermin Lopez, the BVB defender shot the ball into his own goal (54th) and obliged his team to score at least five goals in this game.
BVB too flat for the final sprint – Barca meets Bavaria or Inter
The shock was noticeable to the BVB – and also the enormous effort the team had done to get into a starting point that made something historical briefly a realistic opportunity. After her own goal, Barcelona – also because of the substitution of Pedri – controlled the game from then on and tried not to give Dortmund the opportunity to get the enthusiasm back from before.
It seemed briefly after Guirassy used a capital error by Ronald Araujo for his third goal (77th) – however, the punch was missing to make Barcelona (hits FC Bayern Munich or Inter Milan in the semi -finals). But that did not change the fact that BVB now has a blueprint for the last five Bundesliga games that shows how much quality is in the team.
The tournament tree of the Champions League
“Dortmund did it very well, they have a fantastic team. I had the feeling beforehand that something was coming because I know the stadium and the fans well”Flick, who has been Barca coach since this season, also praised “Amazon Prime”. “We didn’t work too much either. But we are happy, it is a nice thing that we reached the semi -finals directly in the first year.”
Dortmund now meets Gladbach
Due to the upswing in the past games, BVB has again made a connection to the European places in the Bundesliga, on the top 6 there are only three points behind, on Champions League rank four RB Leipzig) also reached six points. The Dortmund will meet Borussia Mönchengladbach next Sunday – it will be a great opportunity to make the return to Europe more likely.
“I hope that we can show a similar performance on Sunday. The team definitely lives. Everyone felt that we believe it today”said Niklas Süle. Kovac also looked ahead positively: “You can leave this way, but we would have been happy to come.
This season as well as in the past, when BVB made it to the final of the Champions League, the games on international terrain were balm for the often battered soul. The performance against Barca, who received the first defeat in Dortmund after 24 competitive games in 2025, was an encourager that these games could still exist next season.