Guirassy’s hattrick not enough as Barcelona qualifies to semi-finals

Dortmund 3-1 Barcelona (5-3 on aggregate)

Guinean striker Serhou Guirassy scored a hat-trick against Spanish side Barcelona in Dortmund’s 3-1 win in Germany. The damage was done in the first leg when the Germans were mauled 4-0 in Spain by FC Barcelona. Guirassy opened the scoring for the home side via a sumptuous panenka penalty kick in the 10th minute to give the fans a slim hope. It was Guirassy’s 11th goal of the UCL, making him Dortmund’s highest scorer in a single season in the history of the competition.

Dortmund dominated and created enough chances to take at least a two-goal lead before the end of the first, but failed disastrously to take their chances. The first half ended 1-0 against Barcelona, with the Catalan club being the happier of the two.

The towering striker doubled Dortmund’s lead with just three minutes played in the second half. A corner from Svenson was connected by Bensabaini, whose header was finally headed in by Guirassy to send Signal Iduna Park into delirium. 2-0 with 48 minutes play was all that Dortmund needed in their slim chance of an impossible comeback.

In the 54th minute, Bensabaini tragically scored an own goal to bring Barcelona back into the tie after he failed to clear Fermin Lopez’s wonderful cross. The tie was all over because Barcelona was leading by 5-2 on aggregate.

Guirassy got his hat-trick with 15 minutes from time after blasting the ball to the roof of the net, where the impressive Szcesny had no chance to stop it. Dortmund continued with their wonderful efforts but failed to strike again. Guirassy was voted for as the Man of the Match after the hat-trick. He is now leading the top scorers chart with 13 goals, having scored 5 of them against Barcelona alone. He scored twice in the club’s 3-2 home defeat in the Group Phase.

Barcelona, in the semi-finals, will face either Inter Milan or Bayern Munich.