Borussia Dortmund star BREAKS Mohamed Salah’s Champions League record – but his hat-trick is in vain as Barcelona survive to reach semi-finals

• Borussia Dortmund were knocked out of the Champions League by Barcelona
• They were beaten 5-3 on aggregate despite winning 3-1 on Tuesday evening
• LISTEN NOW: It’s All Kicking Off!, available wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Monday and Thursday 

By WILL PICKWORTH

Borussia Dortmund star Serhou Guirassy became the highest-scoring African player in a single Champions League campaign on Tuesday night, but the German side still crashed out of the competition.

Dortmund were taking on Barcelona in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final at Signal Iduna Park.

They faced a tricky task from the start given the Catalan giants held a 4-0 aggregate lead from last week’s first leg following a dominant performance.

But Dortmund began the game well and after squandering a couple of early chances, Niko Kovac’s side took the lead thanks to Guirassy’s chipped penalty. 

Guirassy, who joined Dortmund from Stuttgart for £15.4million last summer, added another strike early in the second half after he nodded home Ramy Bensebaini’s header across goal from a corner.

However, disaster struck when Bensebaini, under pressure from Robert Lewandowski, turned Fermin Lopez’s cutback into his own net.

Serhou Guirassy became the highest-scoring African player in a single Champions League campaign as he netted a hat-trick for Borussia Dortmund against Barcelona on Tuesday night

Guirassy took his tally to 13 goals in this season’s competition, but Dortmund were knocked out

The record previously belonged to Mo Salah and Sadio Mane, who scored 10 goals in 2017-18

Kovac’s side kept fighting throughout and Guirassy pounced on a defensive error to fire home emphatically to complete his hat-trick and take the score back to 5-3 on aggregate.

However, Barcelona held on to progress to their first Champions League semi-final in six seasons.

Nevertheless, Guirassy racked up his tally in this season’s competition to an incredible 13 goals in 14 games with his hat-trick.

In the process, the 29-year-old, who previously played in the tournament with Rennes in 2020-21, broke the record for the most goals scored by an African player in a single Champions League campaign.

This was previously held by Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, who both netted 10 times in Liverpool’s run to the Champions League final in 2017-18. 

Guirassy also became the first Dortmund player to score 13 goals in a single Champions League campaign.

He is similarly top of the scoring charts in this year’s competition after going past Harry Kane (10), Lewandowski (11) and Raphinha (12) on Tuesday.  

Meanwhile, Barcelona will play either Inter Milan or Bayern Munich in the final four, with the Italian side holding a 2-1 lead from last week’s first leg.

:
Borussia Dortmund star BREAKS Mohamed Salah’s Champions League record – but his hat-trick is in vain as Barcelona survive to reach semi-finals

***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk