Borussia Dortmund midfielder Pascal Gross praised his side for their lively display in Tuesday's 3-1 victory over Barcelona.
Dortmund came in the second stage with a backlog of four goals to destroy if they would qualify for the semi -final of the Champions League for the second consecutive year, and after a series of half the chances of the opening minutes begged the ideal start in Signal Iduna Park.
The midfielder won his side for a penalty for eight minutes, and Serhou Guirassy made no mistake from the place and scored the first of three goals in the night.
Gross and Felix Nmecha saw a goal that was allowed in the first half to be offside, and Guirassy again took care of the spark in the second, nodding home of Ramy Bensebaini's Flicked Pass.
Bensebaini changed a cross in his own net shortly thereafter to arrange the nerves of Barcelona, although Guirassy quickly had them on their toes with another nice finish, in use of Ronald Araajo's defensive mistake to complete his hat trick.
However, it was not enough for the hosts, because Barcelona held up for a 5-3 total victory and reached their first semi-final from the Champions League since 2018-19.
“We knew that we had a difficult result of playing away, but everything is possible in this stadium,” said Gross.
“We wanted to play better and brave and support each other more on the field.”
Gross also acknowledged that the performance of Dortmund in the first stage last week let them down.
“We knew that we had to be brave and play ahead. We did that today and it was a completely different game.
“It's a shame that we didn't play in the first stage, because we could have taken something out of it.”
He added: “[Bensebaini’s] The goal was a bit of a shame and it killed the momentum, but we kept going and scored a third. It was a good achievement. “
This was Dortmund's first victory over Barcelona, with the Bundesliga side that had not won any of their previous six meetings against the Blaugrana in the European competition (two draws, four losses).
Gross created six chances in a pleasant individual performance. The Germany International ended its Champions League campaign that generally created 26 opportunities, where only Julian Brandt (28 in 2023-24) created more in a single season in the competition for Dortmund.
Our Champions League trip ends here – but what a battle, what a performance. Heads kept high. pic.twitter.com/kc0eff3pmu
– Borussia Dortmund (@blackyellow) April 15, 2025
When he was asked about the penalty he won early, he explained that he just tried to stay ahead of himself on the goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny of Barcelona.
'I tried to appear [Szczesny]. I know he is going down and I tried to get my body between the ball and the keeper, “Gross added.
“You never know if you are offside with them, but I wasn't that it was a penalty.
“It wasn't enough, but today was a good game.”
Guirassy's Hattrick hero deeds turned out to be fruitless.
The Guinea International was only the fourth Dortmund player who scored a hat trick in the Champions League, after Robert Lewandowski (April 2013 against Real Madrid), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (March 2017 against Benfica) and Karim Adeyemi (October 2024 against Celtic).
The 13 goals of Guirassy in the Champions League this season are the most scored by an African player in one campaign.
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