Borussia Dortmund – Barcelona: Die Schwarzgelben Startle Comfortable Catalans (3-1)

Barcelona have been breezing through most of their matches in 2025. But they received a stern warning that they cannot become complacent at the business end of the campaign. As teams test the depth of their courage in a distinct defensive strategy, will it be a help or a hindrance?

Tactical analysis and match report by Emmanuel Adeyemi-Abere.

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Who can stop Barcelona? The team have not lost a single game since the start of the new year and are in prime position to close in on a treble. The Blaugrana have built a four point lead ahead of Real Madrid in LaLiga, are the favorites for the next edition of El Clásico in the Copa del Rey final at the end of next week, and earned a four goal lead from the quarter-final first leg. Hansi Flick forged a treble-winning outfit at the first attempt in Bavaria and five years later, he could repeat the feat.

He took charge of Bayern Munich from Niko Kovač, who is his adversary for this fixture. The Croat came into his post to stabilize a side that had lost their way under Nuri Şahin. The squad still sit six points off the top four in the Bundesliga but have largely looked less naive. With the help of a back five, Kovač commanded results against Mainz, Freiburg, and Bayern Munich in the last fortnight. Could the Signal Iduna Park now produce magic in the Champions League we have seen before?

Kovač chose to stick with the back five he has been working with in the Bundesliga for the second leg. Daniel Svensson stayed as the left wing-back while Yan Couto came in for Julian Ryerson on the right flank. Emre Can, the club captain, sat on the sidelines thanks to an adductor injury, so Remy Bensebaïni was on the left of the rearguard. Felix Nmecha replaced Julian Brandt in the middle of the park, Salih Özcan also lost his place in the lineup, and Karim Adeyemi acted as a third forward.

Flick was without two of his regulars in the starting eleven. Only one of those was by choice: Álex Balde pulled up with a hamstring injury on the weekend and will be out for a few weeks, so Gerard Martín moved into his position on the left of the back four. The manager also put Pedri on the bench, giving Gavi the chance to partner with Frenkie de Jong in midfield. Fermín López sat behind a front three of Lamine Yamal, Robert Lewandowski, and Raphinha, who all scored in the first leg last week.

Dortmund drive forwards

Dortmund defended decently in the first half of the first leg but still gave up long phases of possession to the Catalans. The visitors missed two of their main progressive pieces for their original plan. While de Jong tipped around the central defenders, Pedri could pull the strings ahead of him to link with the attackers while Balde’s ball carrying released Raphinha to trigger runs on the last line. Here, Kovač had hinted there would be no such respect for their opponents and Die Schwarzgelben started quickly.

They pressed deep into Barcelona’s half of the field. Couto charged out of the defensive chain to close down Martín, Süle slid across to cover Raphinha, and the other three forwards tilted towards the left.

Kovač continued to commit to an aggressive approach with the ball. He has used two forwards at the top of the formation as Beier buzzes around Adeyemi or Guirassy. But all three players came into closer interaction, and as the Catalan counter press closed in, spaces opened up for Pascal Groß to go forward. The midfielder made a critical incision to help open the scoring in this phase of the game.

6^th minute: offensive transition from Borussia Dortmund. Barcelona attempted to play out from the back but Niklas Süle shut down the longline pass to Raphinha, knocking the ball forwards. Cubarsí cleared the ball with his head, but Couto could push in for the second ball and yellow-black shirts start to interact centrally: Beier dropped off the defensive line, Couto continued attacking the gap between Cubarsí and Martín and Beier got room to find Guirassy, who rotated the play to Groß.

Svensson swiftly restarted the play, throwing the ball back to Adeyemi, who attacked the space ahead of him before digging a chip through the sea of red and blue shirts. Groß got the first contact to the pass before Wojciech Szczęsny and the officials awarded a penalty. Guirassy grabbed the ball and cheekily clipped a Panenka down the middle of the net. Three goals to get, eighty minutes to go.

Catalans continue to take risks

Kovač claimed before the contest that it would be critical to create controlled attacks and not get too impatient. The Catalans continued to struggle to control possession, but they pack a powerful punch in the transition phase. Two of their first leg goals were from counters, keeping the hosts on their toes.

It was a rare quiet day for Yamal, so the link between Raphinha and Lewandowski looked like the most productive path into the final third. Near the half hour mark, the striker set away the Brazilian with a flick around the corner, but Süle sprinted back to recover. Then, Bensebaïni blocked the left winger in the box as the two took paths across each other to get free for Martín between the lines.

32nd minute: offensive sequence from Barcelona. Gavi dropped off the shoulder of Beier and Martín moved the ball forwards. Lewandowski had dropped out towards the left wing but wandered back inside to push Waldemar Anton away from Raphinha. Once Raphinha receives a pass, he is on the move to bounce the ball off his teammate in a half turned position and a clean shot nearly occurs.

There were fewer final third entries for the hosts after a furious fifteen minutes. However, they tested the belief in the offside trap. Ronald Araújo adds speed over the ground, but Blaugrana do not depend on extreme pace to execute their defensive approach. With enough pressure from the front four and a last line willing to step up the field at almost every chance it gets to compact the distances between the lines, the offside trap takes time from opponents to make good choices against a ‘naive’ strategy.

There were plenty of occasions when the trap foiled Dortmund. But a few flawed examples of execution could be costly. Groß got the run on the back four for the first goal because Koundé tracked Svensson while the rest of the last line held a higher height on the edge of the penalty area. With the speed of Adeyemi in his back, the defender did not always look the most comfortable on the evening.

37th minute: defensive sequence from Barcelona. Yamal jumped towards Bensebaïni, but the central defender could release Svensson on the wing. Barcelona’s back four raised the last line: Araújo first moved forward, then Cubarsí and Martín followed. However, Koundé kept going with Groß and Svensson swerved a deep ball into the channel for Adeyemi to chase, breaking the offside trap.

At the start of the second half, Groß gave Adeyemi the opportunity to drive directly at Koundé. The forward flew around the right back, forcing Szczęsny to stop his strike before Groß got free from Gavi on the other side of the penalty area to create a cutback that Cubarsí blocked. Svensson slung a cross to the far post, Bensebaïni manhandled Martín, and his flick-on found Guirassy to guide a header over the goal line. The hosts were halfway there and a little under half of the allotted time remained.

Guirassy gets the match ball

However, Lewandowski latched onto an opening to dash Dortmund’s dreams only minutes later. Koundé clipped the ball between Svensson and Bensebaïni where Fermín had run off the back of Groß. Lewandowski lurked in behind the offside line but came alive when the attacking midfielder broke into the box. He moved closer to the near post and as Bensebaïni attempted to clean up the danger, he swept the ball past Grigor Kobel. Dortmund now needed three goals to force extra time.

Flick then turned to the bench for reinforcements. He put Pedri into his rightful role in the middle of the park, and he eventually filled in for Fermín as the most offensive midfielder when Eric García gained the position of the sitting six behind him and de Jong. Pedri’s presence pulled some order out of the chaos from the first half hour, but it was not enough to dampen Dortmund’s spirits completely.

In the 76th minute, substitute Julien Duranville jumped on a loose ball to gain the possession from the guests. Garcia shuffled back to double up on the winger with Martín, but he wriggled his way around the markers to fire a delivery into the danger zone. It was Araújo’s turn to struggle with a cutback. His footwork was not set and as he tried to clear the ball on the swivel, his hips ended up facing Guirassy. The clearance landed at the feet of the striker, who slotted the ball beyond Szczęsny for his hat-trick.

Moments later, Brandt broke the offside trap and scored a fourth, but he was marginally offside. It was the closest Kovač’s men came to another goal as their valiant effort fell slightly short of the mark.

Takeaways

Borussia Dortmund will not mimic the exploits of last season, bowing out of the Champions League despite their best efforts at a comeback. Kovač has helped the squad in their search for more stability, but it was waves of emotion, aggression, and intensity that were required to turn around this deficit and it nearly came together. With a Champions League striker in their ranks, the team will try and take momentum from this win into the rest of their Bundesliga season to qualify for the competition.

Barcelona are into the final four of the Champions League for the first time in six years. Yet, it feels like an anticlimactic arrival at that stage of the tournament. Opponents have hurt the Catalans in the past and they probably would have got a better grasp of the rhythm of this contest with Pedri on the pitch, but this tie ran away from them much more uncomfortably than they would have liked. As the stakes continue to rise, will the risks ingrained in their approach continue to outweigh the rewards?

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