The new attacking duo fires Barcelona to a 4-0 win and into the record books
Barcelona delivered a performance Tuesday night that felt like a throwback to their most dominant Champions League days-and at the heart of it was a Brazilian winger doing his best Lionel Messiimpression.
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Raphinha lit up the Estadi Olímpic with two goals and two assists in a 4-0 dismantling of Borussia Dortmund in the first leg of their quarter-final tie. His explosive showing brought his total goal involvements in this season’s Champions League to 19, matching a record Messi set in the 2011-12 campaign.
It wasn’t just a one-man show, either. Robert Lewandowski scored twice, Lamine Yamal added a fourth, and the entire front three looked in sync in a way Barcelona fans haven’t seen since the MSN era. In fact, Raphinha and Lewandowski became the first Barça duo to hit double digits in a UCL season since Messi and Neymar did it in 2014-15-a season that ended with a treble.
Barcelona looked confident from the first whistle. Yamal and Lewandowski both had early chances, but it took until the 25th minute for Raphinha to break through, sliding home a close-range effort after staying just onside.
Dortmund had their moments-Karim Adeyemi and Serhou Guirassy came close-but Barcelona made them pay for missed chances. Raphinha was central to everything, setting up Lewandowski twice in the second half, the second a classic Barça sequence with all three attackers involved.
Yamal capped it off with a calm finish from another Raphinha assist, effectively putting the tie to bed before halftime of the second leg.
Off the bench, Ronald Araújo made a statement of his own, throwing his body in the way of two late Dortmund efforts. A goal by Maximilian Beier was disallowed for offside, summing up Dortmund’s frustrating night.
The return leg at Signal Iduna Park is next Tuesday, but unless something dramatic happens, Barcelona already looks destined for the semifinals-for the first time since 2019. With Raphinha in this kind of form, anything feels possible again.
