Barcelona 4 Borussia Dortmund 0 – Can anyone stop Lewandowski, Raphinha and Lamine Yamal?

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Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Lamine Yamal tore through Borussia Dortmund to help Barcelona take a 4-0 goal lead into the second leg of this Champions League quarter-final.

Raphinha scored from on the goal-line to put Hansi Flick’s side ahead, and Lewandowski scored from about 30cm out to double their lead after being set up by Raphinha. The 36-year-old Lewandowski swept home a third — his 99th goal for Barcelona — and then Yamal completed the scoring in the 77th minute with a brilliant finish after another blistering counter-attack.

Dortmund had chances in the first half but were completely dominated after the break.

The second leg will be played on Tuesday in Germany. The winners of this match-up will play either Inter or Bayern Munich in the semi-finals.

Jack Lang, Seb Stafford-Bloor and Anantaajith Raghuraman analyse the key talking points…

Barcelona’s relentlessly brilliant front three

There are a million things to say about Barcelona’s frontline — that slick, bewitching blur of Lewandowski, Yamal, Raphinha — but here’s a starter for ten: it was not, in completely abstract terms, a thing of great promise when the season began. 

One of those guys was turning 36, the years clearly starting to catch up with him. Another was coming off a second successive underwhelming season and being linked with a move to Saudi Arabia, the graveyard of ambition. OK, sure, the third was Lamine Yamal, but you get the point. You’d have been laughed out of Catalonia for even considering comparing them to… well, you know who. 

Now, though? It’s not a ridiculous notion, particularly after this latest display of force — a brutal three-man assault that left Dortmund’s poor defenders searching in vain for their bearings and their dignity. 

Lewandowski, rejuvenated under Hansi Flick, is now the first player from Europe’s top five leagues to reach 40 goals for the season in all competitions. Yamal was a picture of poise throughout, playing a part in both of Lewandowski’s strikes and then finishing the rout with a toe poke in the closing stages. 

Raphinha scored one and set up two more, taking him to 48 combined goals and assists for the season. That’s more than Ronaldinho or Rivaldo ever managed in a single campaign for Barcelona. 

The really scary thing is that it could easily have been more. Dortmund may be spared a second helping of punishment — they will probably face Barcelona’s reserves in the second leg, will probably lose to them, too — but the remaining clubs in the competition should be on alert.

Jack Lang

Raphinha stealing Cubarsi’s goal on the line 

The look on his face said it all. As his Barcelona team-mates celebrated what they believed to be Pau Cubarsi’s first Champions League goal, Barcelona captain Raphinha was a picture of sheepishness. He glanced up, looking for a replay. He must have every one of his toes crossed inside his boots.

The Brazilian hadn’t just committed the high crime of goal robbery, diving in to prod the ball home when it was already crossing the line.

The immediate fear, not dispelled by the first couple of replays, was that he had also managed to mess it up by being offside. 

In another corner of the Iberian peninsula, an ancient clock started going backwards. The air ran cold. The ghost of Nani awakened with a blood-curdling howl.

In the end, it was a false alarm. Waldemar Anton had played Raphinha onside. The goal stood. Cubarsi managed a diffident grin. The poltergeist returned to the other dimension. 

Raphinha had not won any points for generosity or team spirit. He had, though, from fully zero millimetres out, scored his 12th goal of this Champions League campaign — and put Barcelona on course for victory. 

Jack Lang

Barcelona didn’t have to get out of third gear

Barcelona have had a fantastic 24 hours. Arch-rivals Real Madrid — their closest competitors for La Liga and the Copa del Rey — suffered a 3-0 hammering at Arsenal on Tuesday to leave their Champions League hopes hanging by a thread.

Then, in what was far from their most fluent display, Barcelona comfortably saw off Dortmund, who could have gone into half-time level after twice threatening to score through Serhou Guirassy. Barcelona initially struggled to cope with Julian Brandt dropping deeper to collect the ball, which afforded Carney Chukwuemeka freedom to roam and create, and Flick wore a frustrated look on numerous occasions in the first half. 

Did it matter in the end? Not really.

Barca did not have to be brilliant. Their first two goals came from a set-piece and a Dortmund giveaway in their own half, Lewandowski scored a third from a swift counter-attack and Raphinha set Yamal up for the fourth from another. They rarely needed to shift out of second or third gear in attack against a defence missing key personnel.

Tougher tests await for Barcelona but spirits will be high with a treble in their sights. 

Anantaajith Raghuraman

A tough night for Dortmund’s hot-and-cold striker

This was always going to be a night when Barcelona created the better chances and Dortmund had to live off their counters. It was also an evening when they had to take whatever chances they were able to create, and to be ultra-efficient in front of goal.

They were not — and Serhou Guirassy was a culprit, despite 10 goals in his past 10 Champions League starts.

Truthfully, while Barcelona certainly dominated the first half, Dortmund should have ended it with one, possibly two goals. First from a bouncing ball that dropped in acres of space, and then from a driven Karim Adeyemi cross that begged to be put away, Guirassy failed to make the necessary contact.

(Pedro Salado/Getty Images)

But as prolific as Guirassy can be, he is always a streaky player. He scored four times against Union Berlin at the end of February, then another against St Pauli a week later, before going scoreless throughout the rest of March. His tap-in against Freiburg last weekend was his first goal in seven games, so he arrived in Catalonia in less than good scoring touch.

It showed, too, and while the scoreline and statistics described a lopsided game, Dortmund really could have had more to take back to the Westfalenstadion.

Seb Stafford-Bloor

Did this Dortmund squad ever have a chance?

Dortmund may have arrived with a few injuries, most crucially to Nico Schlotterbeck and Marcel Sabitzer, but this was a task which their squad never seemed up to.

It was telling, for instance, that while being vaguely competitive in the first half and fashioning a few good chances, once their energy levels sapped and Kovac was forced to look to his bench, Barcelona’s true superiority began to tell. 

Carney Chukwuemeka and Felix Nmecha started in central midfield. Chukwuemeka only started his first game of 2025 last Saturday. Nmecha made his first appearance in two months as a later replacement in the same game. 

But they had to start. They also had to stay on far longer than they might have done (67 minutes), given that both looked desperately short of energy from the beginning of the second half.  

Those problems existed all over the pitch. Niklas Sule’s best form is a distant memory and it would have been callous to start him against such a talented opposition. Julen Duranville is a prospect, a talented one too, but he was never likely to offer anything more than a fresh pair of legs. Brandt played the entire game, despite having desperately little effect upon it; it’s hard to criticise Kovac for that, either, given that he has no other advanced playmaker of a similar profile. 

There are very few options at Dortmund and very few ways of changing games. While this Barcelona tie always looked unwinnable, it seems — even after the first leg — to have rammed home how much remodeling work there is to in the future. 

Seb Stafford-Bloor

What did Hansi Flick say?

We will bring you this after he has spoken at the post-match press conference.

What did Niko Kovac say?

We will bring you this after he has spoken at the post-match press conference.

What next for Barcelona?

Saturday, April 12: Leganes (Away), La Liga, 8pm UK, 3pm ET

What next for Dortmund?

Saturday, April 12: Bayern Munich (Away), Bundesliga, 5.30pm UK, 12.30pm ET

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(Pedro Salado/Getty Images)

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