New-look PSG advances in Champions League

Birmingham, Apr. 17: Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique described his group of players as the “best squad in the world” after advancing to the Champions League semifinals for the second straight season.

Under the Spaniard, PSG has replaced its “galacticos” like Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé with talented up-and-coming players and the change in policy appears to be paying off.

With the French league already secured, the Qatar-owned club can focus on winning the Champions League for the first time, having reached the last eight for the third time in five years — albeit after losing 3-2 to Aston Villa in the second leg of the quarterfinals on Tuesday.

While saluting all of his players, Luis Enrique reserved special praise for his goalkeeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma, who produced a string of great saves to prevent Villa taking the game to extra time.

“I think I have the best squad in the world, not only the goalkeeper,” Luis Enrique said after seeing his team advance 5-4 on aggregate. “In a club like we are at PSG, you have a lot of quality players and Gigi is one of the best goalkeepers in the world. “And I have to say that match, for us, allows us to grow up and compete even better.” Achraf Hakimi was one of the early scorers for PSG on Tuesday — along with fellow full back Nuno Mendes — and the Morocco international said “we are on the way to becoming a big team” having already eliminated Premier League champion-elect Liverpool in the knockout stage.

“I think we are really confident right now,” Hakimi said. “We are again in the semifinals and we want to show PSG is a big team, a big club and we want to fight for all the titles we can.”

Luis Enrique refused to be disappointed by the way his team collapsed in the second half against Villa, which had enough great chances to not just tie the score on aggregate but even advance.

“This is the Champions League and you have to accept that the opposition team has a lot of quality,” he said. “Aston Villa was playing with a lot of intensity in the second half and they scored two goals in three minutes when, at that moment, the match was almost dead.

“I think, over the two matches, we deserved to win.” PSG will face either Arsenal or Real Madrid in the semifinals.

Similarly, Serhou Guirassy and Borussia Dortmund did what no else has been able to in 2025 — they beat Barcelona. It still wasn't enough to reach the Champions League semifinals.

Guirassy scored a hat trick and still ended up on the losing side as Dortmund's 3-1 win over Barcelona — the Spanish club's first defeat of any sort since December — wasn't enough to prevent a 5-3 aggregate loss.

After being swept aside 4-0 in the first leg of the quarterfinal, Dortmund had nothing to lose Tuesday and attacked Barcelona from the start, leaving the visitors off-balance.

Barcelona coach Hansi Flick, who has plenty of experience of facing — and beating — Dortmund from his time in the German league, said the passionate home crowd meant he'd expected a tough second leg despite his team's four-goal lead.

“I had a little bit of a feeling that something like this was coming,” Flick told broadcaster Amazon Prime. “Today you have to say congratulations to Dortmund, they played a very good game, and congratulations to my team, they're in the semifinals.”

It was an unusually quiet game for Barcelona's prolific forwards Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski, who had 12 and 11 Champions League goals respectively this season. The closest either came to scoring was a tame shot by Raphinha at Dortmund goalkeeper Gregor Kobel.

Guirassy's game

Guirassy is Dortmund's “life insurance,” coach Niko Kovac said after a game that continued his rapid rise to fame and left him top of the Champions League scoring lists this season. “Serhou just needs the support of his teammates, like every striker does, and he got that today.”

Dortmund had arguably lost the quarterfinal in the first leg, and in addition had captain Emre Can and midfielder Carney Chukwuemeka ruled out with injuries earlier in the day.

For a while, Guirassy made the impossible seem possible.

Guirassy had missed chances in the first leg and spurned a couple more early in Tuesday's game but made no mistake from the penalty spot in the 11th minute after Barcelona goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny collided with Pascal Gross.

Guirassy's header made it 2-0 in the 49th minute before an own goal by Ramy Bensebaini made Dortmund's task even harder. Fermín López's low cross that in off Bensebaini's ankle — a double disappointment for Dortmund because the defender been crucial in the comeback attempt, assisting Guirassy’s second goal shortly before. Guirassy seized on Ronald Araujo's defensive error to complete his hat trick with a powerful close-range shot in the 76th, in the process becoming the Champions League's top scorer this season on 13 goals.

It gave Dortmund fresh hope of completing what would have been one of the all-time great Champions League comebacks — one to rival Barcelona's against Paris Saint-Germain in 2017 — but Barcelona held on to progress.

Streaks broken

Barcelona faces either Inter Milan or Bayern Munich in the semifinals, the first time it’s reached the last four of the Champions League since the 2018-19 season. In Tuesday’s other game, PSG reached the semifinals with a 5-4 aggregate win over Aston Villa despite losing the second leg 3-2.

As well as being Barcelona’s first loss in all competitions since a 2-1 defeat to Atletico Madrid on Dec. 21, it was Barcelona's first Champions League loss since September, and only the seventh loss in Flick's 50 games in charge. The German coach had won all seven of his previous games against Dortmund in charge of Barcelona and Bayern.

Dortmund may have to wait a while until the Champions League anthem plays at its stadium again.

Last year’s Champions League runner-up is eighth in the Bundesliga with five games remaining, and six points off the four Champions League qualifying places.(AP)