Show key events only
Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
Show key events only
Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
10 mins: This too curls out of play, but it does at least bounce on its way through.
9 mins: But now the visitors win a corner of their own, Gittens’ cross deflecting behind.
8 mins: Barcelona are making a complete mess of Borussia in these early stages, just turning their defence into so much woodchip.
7 mins: Save! Raphinha is played in down the left again. This time Lewandowski hangs back on the edge of the area and is picked out by the pull-back, but his finish is too central and Kobel keeps it out.
6 mins: And Yamal shoots again! A lovely trick to get past Bensebaini on the right, but he tries an audacious/ludicrous shot from a near-impossible angle rather than attempting a pass.
5 mins: Save! A lovely backheel from Lewandowski in the build-up, and Yamal gets the ball, cuts onto his left foot and shoots too close to Kobel.
4 mins: Which is curled over the six-yard box and back out of play on the far side.
3 mins: Raphina finds space on the left, but Bensebaini clears his low cross for a corner.
2 mins: Barcelona, on the break, cross the halfway line for the first time.
Commentator: “… and this is where Barcelona can hit you so hard!”
Barcelona: Turn around, play ball gently backwards.
1 min: Peeeeep! Borussia take the centre, and immediately pump the ball downfield and out of play.
Right, preambles completed, anthem played, hands shaken, coin tossed.
Out come the players! Is there any stopping Barcelona in this competition, and if so are Borussia the team to do it? We’re about to (go some of the way towards) find(ing) out!
Apparently there are 560 accredited journalists for this game, setting a new record, as well as representatives of 88 rights-holding broadcasters. This strikes me as probably too many.
This is a strong look from Raphinha. Serious yeah-and-what-you-gonna-do-about-it vibes.
Barcelona’s Raphinha arrives at the stadium prior to the Champions League quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund. Photograph: Álex Caparrós/UEFA/Getty Images
Team news has landed, and tonight’s line-ups look like this:
Barcelona: Szczesny, Kounde, Cubarsi, Martinez, Balde, De Jong, Gonzalez, Yamal, Lopez, Raphinha, Lewandowski. Subs: Pena, Kochen, Araujo, Gavi, Torres, Fati, Torre, Christensen, Victor, Garcia, Fort, Gerard.
Borussia Dortmund: Kobel, Bensebaini, Anton, Can, Ryerson, Nmecha, Chukwuemeka, Adeyemi, Brandt, Bynoe-Gittens, Guirassy. Subs: Meyer, Laurenz Lotka, Yan Couto, Ozcan, Reyna, Beier, Duranville, Svensson, Sule, Watjen, Kabar.
Referee: Espen Eskas (Norway).
Barcelona’s: Fermin Lopez is greeted by his club’s mascot, Cat, as he arrives at Estadi Olimpíc Lluis Companys. Photograph: Álex Caparrós/Uefa/Getty Images
Borussia Dortmund won seven of their first 10 games this season, happy times when they stuck four past Phonix Lubeck (yeah, I know), Heidenheim and Bochum and seven past Celtic, when their season was ripe with hope and optimism (even if all three of the non-wins were in the Bundesliga and they were therefore only sixth in the league when the run ended with three successive defeats ). Now they are eighth, three points behind Monchengladbach in sixth and also three points above 12th-placed Wolfsburg, the side that dumped them out of the German Cup back in October.
They have, in short, turned out to be not very good. Yet here they are, in the last eight of the Champions League, travelling to Barcelona and declaring, as their coach Niko Kovac did yesterday, that “we came here to win”. He has, it transpires, a cunning plan: “They have a lot of strengths but every opponent has weaknesses and we want to use them,” Kovac said. “It would not be wise to say what we have planned but we have an idea.”
Barcelona have played 22 games so far in 2025 and have lost none of them. They have at some stage been winning every one, even if they have been pegged back to draw four of them. They top La Liga and have a Copa Del Rey final to look forward to later this month. Their biggest worry would appear to be overconfidence. “Dortmund have a lot of classy players and they are in the quarters for a reason,” insists Hansi Flick, their Swabian coach. Well, we’ll see about that.
Welcome!
