{"id":23403,"date":"2025-04-18T15:43:33","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T15:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/?p=23403"},"modified":"2025-04-18T15:45:33","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T15:45:33","slug":"ucl-barca-psg-advance-to-semifinals-despite-second-leg-losses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/?p=23403","title":{"rendered":"UCL: Barca, PSG advance to semifinals despite second leg losses"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2022By Premium Times<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona have booked their spots in the UEFA Champions League semifinals despite both teams suffering defeats in the second legs of their respective quarter-final ties on Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

For Barcelona<\/span><\/a>, it marks their first return to the Champions League semi-finals since the 2018\/19 season.<\/span><\/p>\n

They advanced with a 5\u20133 aggregate win over Borussia Dortmund, who won the second leg 3\u20131 at Signal Iduna Park.<\/span><\/p>\n

Barcelona came into the match with a solid lead but had to survive a strong fightback from the German side.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dortmund made an early statement when Wojciech Szczesny fouled Pascal Gross in the box, allowing Serhou Guirassy to calmly convert from the spot with a Panenka penalty in the 11th minute.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just after halftime, Guirassy struck again, this time heading in from close range after a corner, reducing the aggregate deficit to two goals.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dortmund\u2019s momentum, however, was cut short minutes later when Barcelona responded.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fermin Lopez whipped in a dangerous cross from the right, and defender Ramy Bensebaini accidentally turned the ball into his own net.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dortmund pushed again and found a third goal in the 75th minute. Ronald Araujo\u2019s poor clearance fell kindly to Guirassy inside the six-yard box, and the forward completed his hat-trick with a clinical finish.<\/span><\/p>\n

The goal made him the Champions League\u2019s top scorer, overtaking Raphinha.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the late pressure, Barcelona managed to hold on and secure their place in the semi-finals.<\/span><\/p>\n

They will now face Inter Milan or Bayern Munich, with Inter holding a 2\u20131 advantage heading into the second leg on Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Guirassy\u2019s dominant performance stood out, with seven touches in the opposition box, six total shots, and three goals.<\/span><\/p>\n

He also completed both of his dribbles and won three duels, becoming only the fourth Dortmund player to score a hat-trick in the Champions League.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2022Aston Villa<\/span><\/p>\n

Brave Villa fall short<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in England, PSG narrowly edged past Aston Villa on aggregate despite a thrilling 3\u20132 loss at Villa Park.<\/span><\/p>\n

The French champions progressed with a 5\u20134 aggregate score after surviving a fierce second-half comeback from the Premier League side.<\/span><\/p>\n

PSG had looked in control after early goals from full-backs Nuno Mendes and Achraf Hakimi gave them a comfortable cushion.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Aston Villa, who trailed by four goals in the tie at one point, came roaring back.<\/span><\/p>\n

Youri Tielemans scored with a deflected effort before halftime to spark belief.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the second half, John McGinn scored another deflected goal before Ezri Konsa added a third just minutes later, capitalising on a brilliant run by Marcus Rashford.<\/span><\/p>\n

Villa came close to levelling the tie but failed to make the most of the opportunities that came their way.<\/span><\/p>\n

PSG also had late chances to seal it but failed to take them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite Villa\u2019s spirited effort, the two goals conceded in the opening half-hour ultimately proved costly.<\/span><\/p>\n

PSG now advance to the semifinals, where they will meet the winner of the Arsenal vs Real Madrid clash.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona have booked their spots in the UEFA Champions League semifinals despite both teams suffering defeats in the second legs of their respective quarter-final ties on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23405,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[715,714,10577,3390],"class_list":["post-23403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-barca","tag-psg","tag-semifinals","tag-ucl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23403"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23403"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23409,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23403\/revisions\/23409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}