Barcelona teased us with a huge Champions League collapse at Borussia Dortmund in The Other Game of the night and after looking like they had got their stuff together, they reeled us back in.
A convincing 4-0 victory at home last week meant Hansi Flick’s side had one foot in the last four of the Champions League but they decided to make things extremely uncomfortable for themselves against arguably the worst team left in the competition.
Serhou Guirassy’s 11th-minute penalty might not have been enough to make a single Barcelona fan panic but his second of the night, four minutes into the second half, will have made fans of the La Liga giants at least start watching properly.
It only took four minutes for the faint fears of an almighty collapse to fade thanks to a Ramy Bensebaini own goal. We thought Barcelona would stroll the rest of the game with the wind knocked out of their hosts, but Guirassy showed Dortmund were not giving up with an emphatic finish, being assisted by a weak clearance from Ronald Araujo.
As German teams love to do, they were consistently trying to get in behind the Barcelona defence and such is the nature of Flick and his ethos, they were able to do so at will. Julian Brandt had the ball in the back of the net after bursting through one-on-one with Wojciech Szczesny, who conceded a penalty for Guirassy’s first, though the German midfielder had clearly gone too early.
Shooting towards their preferred goal, the Yellow Wall was bouncing and could sense something special was happening.
It was ultimately too big of a task for Dortmund, with the damage done in the first leg. What they did do, however, was show teams that Barcelona can be there for the taking if you get things right tactically.
Their success this season has all been about their sparkling front three of Ballon d’Or favourite Raphinha, 17-year-old wonderkid Lamine Yamal and old fogey Robert Lewandowski, with their midfield creativity and defensive frailties being overlooked.
On an individual level, the only Barcelona defender we are actually convinced is a very good player is Jules Kounde. Sure, Pau Cubarsi is a wonderkid himself but being a teenage centre-back is a different proposition to being a teenage right-winger.
Niko Kovac got his tactics spot on against another former Bayern Munich manager in Flick but as we are keen to emphasise, he absolutely did not in the first leg as his side were blown away and buried with 90 minutes still to play.
Kovac provided the blueprint for managers with better players at their disposal and you would now fancy Inter to do a number on them in the semi-final, if you didn’t already. Meeting Bayern would be more evenly-matched and certainly more entertaining for me, Clive.
It was an anxious evening but Barca ultimately came out victorious across two legs and can put their collective feet up while Inter and Bayern do battle on Wednesday evening.
Unlike in the other quarter-final of the night, there was not really a genuine feeling that Dortmund could come from behind to qualify. It did not feel like that in Aston Villa’s 3-2 win over Paris Saint-Germain – who also had to work very hard to progress – until Villa got to within one on aggregate, which the German side could not manage.
They left everything out there – especially Guirassy, with his hat-trick – but everything and more was never going to be enough.
Arsenal will not only be encouraged by PSG’s near collapse but knowing they might meet Barcelona in the final, there will be plenty of optimism in the red half of north London.
It is only Arsenal and Inter without a blemish on their Champions League knockout record this season but a trip to the Bernabeu is a daunting task for the former, even if they go to Madrid with a three-goal aggregate lead.
The way the draw is has panned out means an El Clasico Champions League final is possible and Barcelona have done their bit on a night that teased us with potential historic comebacks. Now it is up to Real Madrid to actually follow through and give us one.
