Barcelona host Dortmund, Aston Villa visit PSG at Champions League showdowns

09 Apr 2025 17:53

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Barcelona host Dortmund, Aston Villa visit PSG at Champions League showdowns

Photo: Getty Images

The two top scorers in this season’s Champions League will face off as Barcelona hosts Borussia Dortmund in the first leg of the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Raphinha, having a standout season with 11 Champions League goals for Barcelona, will face Dortmund forward Serhou Guirassy, who has 10 along with Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane, News.Az reports, citing AP.

Both scored when Barcelona won 3-2 at Dortmund in the league phase in December.

Barcelona, trying to reach a Champions League semifinal for the first time since the 2018-19 campaign, will also count on Robert Lewandowski, the Spanish league’s top scorer with 25 goals. The 36-year-old striker has nine goals in the European competition this season.

Lewandowski scored 17 of his 103 career goals in the Champions League for Dortmund over three seasons from 2011-14.

Dortmund will be without defender Nico Schlotterbeck because of a meniscus tear in his left knee. The club announced Monday he will miss the rest of the season.

Also Wednesday, Paris Saint-Germain, seeking an elusive first Champions League title, hosts Aston Villa in a meeting between two of Europe’s hottest teams.

PSG finished only 15th in the league phase in January — the lowest of any of the quarterfinalists — but since then has 16 wins in 17 games across all competitions. The lone setback was an unlucky 1-0 loss to Liverpool at Parc des Princes in the first leg of the round of 16, when it outplayed its opponent for most of the match.

Villa, coached by Unai Emery, has won seven straight coming into its first game at this stage of the competition for 42 years.

Emery was previously PSG’s coach for one of the biggest humiliations in Champions League history, when it squandered a 4-0 first-leg lead against Barcelona in the round of 16 eight years ago. The Spanish side won the second-leg 6-1, eliminating PSG.

In the 2018-19 season after Emery’s departure, PSG experienced another Champions League blow when current Villa forward Marcus Rashford scored a penalty deep into stoppage-time as Manchester United eliminated the French club in the last 16 on away goals.

News.Az