Robert Lewandowski increased his Champions League goals tally to 105 with a double as Barcelona took a stranglehold on their quarter-final with his former club Borussia Dortmund.
The 36-year-old striker scored his 39th and 40th in all competitions this season and 98th and 99th for Barca after Raphinha had set the ball rolling at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys before 17-year-old Lamine Yamal cemented a 4-0 advantage to take into next Tuesday night’s return at Signal Iduna Park.
On a night when the five-time winners extended their unbeaten run to 23 games, they were simply too good for the Bundesliga outfit, who were guilty of squandering chances in both halves and were ultimately made to pay for it.
Last season’s runners-up found themselves under intense pressure from the off with Yamal causing problems for full-back Ramy Bensebaini, and the Spaniard forced keeper Gregor Kobel into his first save with a fifth-minute strike after cutting inside the defender.
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Yamal tricked his way past Bensebaini again seconds later and curled an ambitious attempt wide of the far post with Lewandowski significantly better placed, but the Poland international did get the chance to test Kobel almost immediately with a firm strike from Raphinha’s pull-back.
The hosts eventually took the lead with 25 minutes gone when Inigo Martinez headed Fermin Lopez’s free-kick back across goal and central defensive partner Pau Cubarsi stabbed it past Kobel with Raphinha stretching unnecessarily to touch the ball across the line before facing a nervous VAR check for offside.
However, Dortmund should have been level nine minutes before the break when Carney Chukwuemeka, making his first start in the competition, lofted a pass in to Serhou Guirassy and saw the striker miss his kick with just keeper Wojciech Szczesny to beat.
Englishmen Chukwuemka and Jamie Gittens had shots repelled in quick succession and Guirassy somehow failed to make contact with Karim Adeyemi’s cross as the visitors finished the half strongly, but the Spaniards’ lead remained intact at the break.
Gittens flashed a 47th-minute shot across Szczesny’s goal as Dortmund resumed with intent, but they were 2-0 down within seconds when Raphinha headed Yamal’s floated cross back across goal for Lewandowski to score from point-blank range.
Niko Kovac’s men found themselves pinned back inside their own half as Barca looked to kill the tie off with Lopez clipping the outside of the post before Kobel denied Lewandowski and Lopez fired over after his initial effort had been blocked.
However, the third goal arrived with 66 minutes gone when Lopez broke from his own half and exchanged passes with Yamal before squaring for Lewandowski to sweep home his second.
Yamal added his name to the scoresheet from Raphinha’s perfectly-weighted pass with 13 minutes remaining to further dent the visitors’ hopes despite a late flurry.
