UEFA Champion League: Lucky Barcelona, PSG Sneak Into S-Final

• As Madrid, Bayern seek redemption against Arsenal, Inter

FC Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) have booked their spots in the semi-final of this year’s UEFA Champions League, thanks to their hard-fought battles on Tuesday night that caused heart breaks for the outstanding opponents.

In Germany, it was an utterly poor outing for the Spanish giants as they were fortunate to survive the Borussia Dortmund (BVB)’s scare losing 3-1 on the night.

The Hansi Flick men should be grateful for their first leg 4-0 victory as they pocketed the last four ticket that would see them facing either Inter Milan or Bayern Munich. Inter emerged 2-1 winners in the first leg, so they hold an advantage ahead of Wednesday’s second leg in Milan.

The defeat also saw Barcelona’s 24-game unbeaten streak in 2025 coming to an end after being dominated and outplayed for almost the entire game. At times, they looked so ordinary and at risk of giving away their huge 4-0 first-leg lead.

On Tuesday night, Dortmund came out firing on all cylinders, inspired by the beautiful and electric home crowd as well  as the clinical form of Guinea international, Serhou Guirassy.

The Guinean has been crucial in every match against the Catalan side and led the fightback for the home side with a stunning hat-trick. Guirassy had scored both of Dortmund’s 2-3 defeat against Barcelona in the group stage this campaign.

This time he upped his game and scored one more but to no avail. His performance gave Dortmund players and faithfuls hope as it helped Dortmund close in on Barcelona by 4-3 at one point.

However, the Blaugrana still managed to survive the Yellow Wall and a brilliant Dortmund performance inside the Signal Iduna Park to reach Europe’s Final four for the first time in six years.

Dortmund won the second leg 3-1, but Barcelona prevailed 5-3 on aggregate.

It’s Heartbreak For Villa
The other quarter final pairing was heartbreak for English side, Aston Villa whose supporters should feel nothing but pride for their team given their effort in trying to mount a comeback against Paris Saint-Germain.

Distressed as their impressive Champions League run comes to an end, Villa could have easily scored in the opening moments of the second leg, but they had every reason to give up when Hakimi scored in the 11th minute to put PSG 4-1 up on aggregate.

Mendes scored again for PSG before the half-hour mark and almost any team in the world would have packed it in. But surprisingly, Villa fought back.

An own goal gave them a life-line as they came out firing in the second half. Rashford should have scored, only for Donnarumma to turn him away with a great save.

McGinn’s 55th minute goal, which was helped by a fortunate deflection, was more than deserved and Konsa’s finish off a beautiful Rashford set-up brought Villa within one.

Going from dead and buried to feeling like a certainty to equalize, Tielemans nearly did it for Villa, then Konsa had a great look. Villa were all over PSG, but that goal never came.

The expected ‘Miracle of Villa Park’ did not happen on this night. A club that had dreamt of a night that would be written into European history, and came so close, did not get there. Heartbreaking, and also a team to be proud.

The final whistle came and Villa’s dream of a shock comeback was all over. They won 3-2 on the day, but PSG triumphed 5-4 on aggregate.

PSG will now meet either Arsenal or Real Madrid, with the Gunners holding a 3-0 advantage ahead of their Wednesday’s meeting in Madrid.