Barcelona advances to Champions League semifinals despite first loss of the year

DORTMUND, Germany (AP) — Serhou Guirassy and Borussia Dortmund did what no else has been able to in 2025 — they beat Barcelona. It still wasn't enough to reach the Champions League semifinals.

Guirassy scored a hat trick and still ended up on the losing side as Dortmund's 3-1 win over Barcelona — the Spanish club's first defeat of any sort since December — wasn't enough to prevent a 5-3 aggregate loss.

After being swept aside 4-0 in the first leg of the quarterfinal, Dortmund had nothing to lose Tuesday and attacked Barcelona from the start, leaving the visitors off-balance.

Barcelona coach Hansi Flick, who has plenty of experience of facing — and beating — Dortmund from his time in the German league, said the passionate home crowd meant he'd expected a tough second leg despite his team's four-goal lead.

“I had a little bit of a feeling that something like this was coming,” Flick told broadcaster Amazon Prime. “Today you have to say congratulations to Dortmund, they played a very good game, and congratulations to my team, they're in the semifinals.”

It was an unusually quiet game for Barcelona's prolific forwards Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski, who had 12 and 11 Champions League goals respectively this season. The closest either came to scoring was a tame shot by Raphinha at Dortmund goalkeeper Gregor Kobel.

Guirassy is Dortmund's “life insurance,” coach Niko Kovac said after a game that continued his rapid rise to fame and left him top of the Champions League scoring lists this season. “Serhou just needs the support of his teammates, like every striker does, and he got that today.”

Dortmund had arguably lost the quarterfinal in the first leg, and in addition had captain Emre Can and midfielder Carney Chukwuemeka ruled out with injuries earlier in the day.

For a while, Guirassy made the impossible seem possible.

Guirassy had missed chances in the first leg and spurned a couple more early in Tuesday's game but made no mistake from the penalty spot in the 11th minute after Barcelona goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny collided with Pascal Gross.

Guirassy's header made it 2-0 in the 49th minute before an own goal by Ramy Bensebaini made Dortmund's task even harder. Fermín López's low cross that in off Bensebaini's ankle — a double disappointment for Dortmund because the defender been crucial in the comeback attempt, assisting Guirassy’s second goal shortly before.

Guirassy seized on Ronald Araujo's defensive error to complete his hat trick with a powerful close-range shot in the 76th, in the process becoming the Champions League's top scorer this season on 13 goals.

It gave Dortmund fresh hope of completing what would have been one of the all-time great Champions League comebacks — one to rival Barcelona's against Paris Saint-Germain in 2017 — but Barcelona held on to progress.

Barcelona faces either Inter Milan or Bayern Munich in the semifinals, the first time it’s reached the last four of the Champions League since the 2018-19 season. In Tuesday’s other game, PSG reached the semifinals with a 5-4 aggregate win over Aston Villa despite losing the second leg 3-2.

As well as being Barcelona’s first loss in all competitions since a 2-1 defeat to Atletico Madrid on Dec. 21, it was Barcelona's first Champions League loss since September, and only the seventh loss in Flick's 50 games in charge. The German coach had won all seven of his previous games against Dortmund in charge of Barcelona and Bayern.

Dortmund may have to wait a while until the Champions League anthem plays at its stadium again.

Last year’s Champions League runner-up is eighth in the Bundesliga with five games remaining, and six points off the four Champions League qualifying places.

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Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski celebrates after forcing an own goal by Dortmund's Ramy Bensebaini during the Champions League quarterfinals second leg soccer match between Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona, at the Signa-Iduna Park in Dortmund, Germany, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Barcelona players ahead of the Champions League quarterfinals second leg soccer match between Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona, at the Signa-Iduna Park in Dortmund, Germany, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Dortmund's Serhou Guirassy scores his side's third goal during the Champions League quarterfinal second leg soccer match between Borussia Dortmund and FC Barcelona, in Dortmund, Germany, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Barcelona's Gerard Martin celebrates after forcing an own goal by Dortmund's Ramy Bensebaini during the Champions League quarterfinals second leg soccer match between Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona, at the Signa-Iduna Park in Dortmund, Germany, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski (9) and Fermin Lopez celebrate after forcing an own goal by Dortmund's Ramy Bensebaini during the Champions League quarterfinals second leg soccer match between Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona, at the Signa-Iduna Park in Dortmund, Germany, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Barcelona's Ronald Araujo, right, duels for the ball with Dortmund's Karim Adeyemi during the Champions League quarterfinals second leg soccer match between Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona, at the Signa-Iduna Park in Dortmund, Germany, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Dortmund's Serhou Guirassy, left, leaves the field with teammates after the Champions League quarterfinals second leg soccer match between Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona, at the Signa-Iduna Park in Dortmund, Germany, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Dortmund's Ramy Bensebaini, left, duels for the ball with Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski during the Champions League quarterfinals second leg soccer match between Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona, at the Signa-Iduna Park in Dortmund, Germany, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Barcelona's Gavi, right, challenges Dortmund's Karim Adeyemi during the Champions League quarterfinals second leg soccer match between Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona, at the Signa-Iduna Park in Dortmund, Germany, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Dortmund's Serhou Guirassy, left, celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the Champions League quarterfinals second leg soccer match between Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona, at the Signa-Iduna Park in Dortmund, Germany, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Dortmund's Serhou Guirassy, right, celebrates after scoring his side's third goal during the Champions League quarterfinals second leg soccer match between Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona, at the Signa-Iduna Park in Dortmund, Germany, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Dortmund's Niklas Suele, right, and Dortmund's Pascal Gross react at the end of the Champions League quarterfinals second leg soccer match between Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona, at the Signa-Iduna Park in Dortmund, Germany, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Dortmund's Ramy Bensebaini reacts at the end of the Champions League quarterfinals second leg soccer match between Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona, at the Signa-Iduna Park in Dortmund, Germany, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Over two dozen families from one of the few remaining Palestinian Bedouin villages in the central West Bank have packed up and fled their homes in recent days, saying harassment by Jewish settlers living in unauthorized outposts nearby has grown unbearable.

The village, Ras Ein el-Auja, was originally home to some 700 people from more than 100 families that have lived there for decades.

Twenty-six families already left on Thursday, scattering across the territory in search of safer ground, say rights groups. Several other families were packing up and leaving on Sunday.

“We have been suffering greatly from the settlers. Every day, they come on foot, or on tractors, or on horseback with their sheep into our homes. They enter people’s homes daily,” said Nayef Zayed, a resident, as neighbors took down sheep pens and tin structures.

Israel's military and the local settler governing body in the area did not respond to requests for comment.

Other residents pledged to stay put for the time being. That makes them some of the last Palestinians left in the area, said Sarit Michaeli, international director at B’Tselem, an Israeli rights group helping the residents.

She said that mounting settler violence has already emptied neighboring Palestinian hamlets in the dusty corridor of land stretching from Ramallah in the West to Jericho, along the Jordanian border, in the east.

The area is part of the 60% of the West Bank that has remained under full Israeli control under interim peace accords signed in the 1990s. Since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted in October 2023, over 2,000 Palestinians — at least 44 entire communities — have been expelled by settler violence in the area, B'Tselem says.

The turning point for the village came in December, when settlers put up an outpost about 50 meters (yards) from Palestinian homes on the northwestern flank of the village, said Michaeli and Sam Stein, an activist who has been living in the village for a month.

Settlers strolled easily through the village at night. Sheep and laundry went missing. International activists had to begin escorting children to school to keep them safe.

“The settlers attack us day and night, they have displaced us, they harass us in every way” said Eyad Isaac, another resident. “They intimidate the children and women.”

Michaeli said she’s witnessed settlers walk around the village at night, going into homes to film women and children and tampering with the village’s electricity.

The residents said they call the police frequently to ask for help — but it seldom arrives. Settlement expansion has been promoted by successive Israeli governments over nearly six decades. But Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government, which has placed settler leaders in senior positions, has made it a top priority.

That growth has been accompanied by a spike in settler violence, much of it carried out by residents of unauthorized outposts. These outposts often begin with small farms or shepherding that are used to seize land, say Palestinians and anti-settlement activists. United Nations officials warn the trend is changing the map of the West Bank, entrenching Israeli presence in the area.

Some 500,000 Israelis have settled in the West Bank since Israel captured the territory, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. Their presence is viewed by most of the international community as illegal and a major obstacle to peace. The Palestinians seek all three areas for a future state.

For now, displaced families of the village have dispersed between other villages near the city of Jericho and near Hebron further south, said residents. Some sold their sheep and are trying to move into the cities.

Others are just dismantling their structures without knowing where to go.

"Where will we go? There’s nowhere. We’re scattered,” said Zayed, the resident, “People’s situation is bad. Very bad.”

An Israeli settler herds his flock near his outpost beside the Palestinian village of Ras Ein al-Auja in the West Bank, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

A Palestinian resident of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank burns trash, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Palestinian children play in the West Bank village of Ras Ein al-Auja, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Palestinian residents of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank pack up their belongings and prepare to leave their homes after deciding to flee mounting settler violence, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Palestinian residents of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank pack up their belongings and prepare to leave their homes after deciding to flee mounting settler violence, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)