Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski scored again on Wednesday to lead Barcelona to a resounding 4-0 victory over Borussia Dortmund in the first leg of the Champions League match held at Montjuic, putting them one step closer to the semifinals.
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It would be the first time since 2019 that the Catalan team reaches the final four of the main club tournament in Europe. That time, when Lionel Messi was still the main figure of the team, they were eliminated in an incredible way after winning the first leg 3-0 at Camp Nou.
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Who were the key players in Barcelona’s victory?
Messi left several seasons ago and now the Blaugrana team finally has a competitive squad to start moving past the years of glory in Europe when the “Pulga” was the main reference.
Against Dortmund, Lewandowski scored twice, while Raphinha contributed with a goal and two assists. Lamine Yamal also scored and Barcelona dealt a heavy blow to the German team’s hopes.
“No, no, no, no, no. We are not classified yet,” warned Barça’s coach, Hansi Flick. “You never know what will happen. Football is a crazy sport. In Dortmund, we have to play like we did today, without making mistakes. We played very well and when you play like that, you score goals, which is what happened.”
The return match is next Tuesday at the German team’s home field, who were the runners-up last year after a final against Barcelona’s arch-rival, Real Madrid.
“I think we played very well, we are not thinking about the semi-finals, we have one more game,” clarified Lewandowski. “We always want to play our football, we are going to Dortmund to win, that’s our goal. The second half was very good, we scored four goals.”
Raphinha added to his tally as top scorer of the Champions League by pushing the ball into the empty net at the 25th minute for his twelfth goal in the competition this season. At 48 minutes, he helped set up Lewandowski’s first goal of the night.
Lewandowski scored his eleventh goal in the Champions League with a shot in the 66th minute before Yamal closed the scoring in the 77th minute with another assist from Raphinha.
Two great goals give PSG the victory
PSG also took an important lead in the other quarter-final match by defeating the English Aston Villa 3-1 at Parc des Princes, in a match that had Prince William and his son George in the stands supporting the Birmingham team.
Morgan Rogers opened the scoring for Villa, but then the Parisian team responded with two great goals: Désiré Doué for the 1-1 and a wonderful goal by Khvicha Kvaratskhelia with a shot to the near post of “Dibu” Martinez. Left-back Nuno Mendes added PSG’s third goal in stoppage time.