Champions League: Barcelona, PSG win big in quarter-final first legs

Robert Lewandowski led Barcelona to a 4-0 romp over his ex-club Borussia Dortmund in their Champions League quarter-final first leg on Wednesday.

In the other quarter-final clash, Paris Saint-Germain came from behind to beat Aston Villa 3-1.

Brazil winger Raphinha was on the goal-line when he prodded Barca ahead midway through the first half, although he was fortunate to survive a video review for offside given Pau Cubarsí’s flick was going in on its own anyway.

There was no doubt about the home side’s second on 48 minutes, though, as Raphinha athletically headed the ball back across goal and Lewandowski nodded in on the line.

The Poland star, who played for Dortmund in the 2013 final they lost to Bayern Munich, then rifled in for 3-0 on 66 minutes before Lamine Yamal added the gloss.

“It’s a question of whether everyone was 100% at it and willing to go through the pain barrier against this Barcelona,” Dortmund’s Emre Can told DAZN. “We’ll play for pride at home. We still try to win. We’ll give everything.”

Barca head to Germany next Tuesday with a big advantage while PSG go to Birmingham ahead after Désiré Doué’s cracker, a Khvicha
Kvaratskhelia special and a late Nuno Mendes strike followed a neat team goal from Morgan Rogers.

In Tuesday’s first legs, Arsenal won 3-0 at home to holders Real Madrid and Inter Milan prevailed 2-1 at Bayern.

Barca’s Lewandowski and Yamal had early half-chances for the side bossed by German Hansi Flick, who along with Lewandowski won the competition with Dortmund’s big rivals Bayern in 2020.

Five-times champions Barca, playing in the Olympic Stadium while the Nou Camp is rebuilt, went ahead on 25 minutes – though Brazil’s Raphinha had his heart in his mouth before the review went his way.

The Spanish league leaders had the odd scare at the other end but Dortmund, last season’s runners-up and 1997 champions, lacked belief as Serhou Guirassy missed two good opportunities.

Dortmund without defender Nico Schlotterbeck after he was ruled out for six months with a knee meniscus tear, were punished when former star Lewandowski grabbed his second-half double to take his Champions League tally this season to 11.