Serhou Guirassy hat-trick in vain as Barcelona hold on to knock out Dortmund

Barcelona held off a spirited comeback attempt from a Serhou Guirassy-inspired Borussia Dortmund to edge into the Champions League semi-finals.

The Catalan giants, expected to ease through after winning last week’s first leg 4-0, were stunned as 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 then 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 they 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.