Berlin, 16 April 2025 (dpa/MIA) - Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain have reached the Champions League semi-finals despite defeats in the second leg of their quarter-finals ties on Tuesday.

Barça travelled to Germany to face last season's runners-up Borussia Dortmund with a 4-0 advantage, but had their position threatened in a 3-1 defeat - their first loss this year.

Serhou Guirassy scored a hat-trick for Dortmund but that was not enough for the German team. Barcelona, meanwhile, found the net thanks to an own goal from Ramy Bensebaini.

PSG took a 2-0 lead at Aston Villa, but the hosts roared back to a 3-2 victory. Villa were one goal short of levelling the tie, while PSG are through with a 5-4 aggregate score.

PSG will face the winner of Arsenal v Real Madrid, while Barcelona will play against Inter Milan or Bayern Munich in the semi-finals. Arsenal and Inter have the advantage ahead of Wednesday's second leg of their respective quarter-finals tie.

Guirassy make Dortmund fans dream

Hopes were high at the Signal Iduna Park when Guirassy broke the deadlock with just 11 minutes played, giving Dortmund plenty of time to get their miracle.

Pascal Gross was fouled in the box by Barça goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny and Dortmund were awarded a penalty, which was converted by Guirassy.

That was his 11th Champions League goal of the season, a new club record in the competition, surpassing the 10 set by Robert Lewandowski and Erling Haaland.

The hosts got down to business early in the second half, forcing Szczesny into two superb saves in a double chance with Karim Adeyemi and Gross.

From the resulting corner, however, the keeper couldn't stop Guirassy's header from falling into the net in the 49th.

But despite the new confidence, a miracle for Dortmund got even harder after Barcelona pulled one back just five minutes later as Bensebaini deflected Fermin Lopez low cross into his own goal.

Guirassy completed his hat-trick after getting the ball from Ronald Araujo's bad clearance in the 76th.

Dortmund still had some time to dream of a comeback, but had to say goodbye to the competition instead and miss the chance of reaching the Champions League final for a second year in a row.

This season's host city, Munich, was where Dortmund won their only title in the competition in 1997.

"I'm proud of our performance. We showed what we can do. It's sad that our journey is over," Guirassy said.

Barcelona coach Hansi Flick admitted his team "didn't play at our best today.

"But that was also down to Dortmund, who did really well. What the team has achieved in recent weeks is phenomenal. We're now one step further, but we're still a long way from the end."

Villa falls short of fairy-tale outcome

Goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez pushed Bradley Barcola's low cross into the path of Achraf Hakimi, who found the left corner to give PSG the opener in the 11th minute.

It seemed like the Parisians had practically sealed their spot in the semi-finals when Nuno Mendes doubled their lead in the 27th.

But Villa didn't give up easily and Youri Tielemans's effort took a deflection before falling into the goal as the hosts pulled one back in the 34th.

Captain John McGinn added a second in the 55th with a stunning strike from distance, before Ezri Konsa was served by Marcus Rashford to tun the game around for Villa two minutes later.

But the English side failed to score one more goal, which would have taken the game to extra-time, mostly because of big performance from PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.

"He made some excellent saves. We showed we can compete at the highest level and we want to do it again next season," Konsa told broadcasters Prime Video.

"I'm very proud of the boys and what we did. We showed great belief and character to get back into it. We won the second leg but it wasn't enough," he added.

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