Barcelona won 4-0 against Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie, and undoubtedly the most talked-about goal was the one scored by Raphinha.
The Brazilian superstar moved on to 12 Champions League goals for the season with the opener at the Estadi Olimpic, and it was a rather comical effort. Pau Cubarsi’s flick was destined to reach the back of the net, but Raphinha stretched to get a touch before it went over the line.
Fortunately for Barcelona and Raphinha, he was also just behind the last Dortmund defender. And as per MD, he revealed that he did apologise to Cubarsi for “stealing” the 18-year-old’s first Champions League goal.
“I was quite worried about whether I was offside or not. I had the doubt. I told Cubarsi that I had touched the ball before the ball went over the line and that the goal could be mine. I apologised to him, but he told me that he is fine. It was a quick moment, I thought the ball could go out or not. It was also because I wanted to score goals.”
Raphinha also spoke on the partnership that he has with Lamine Yamal and Robert Lewandowski, while he also echoed the sentiments of head coach Hansi Flick that Barcelona are not yet through to the last four, despite their significant advantage.
“I love playing with players of a very high level. We are managing to make spectacular numbers and I hope we continue like this. But I’m not going to acknowledge that we are in the semi-finals. There’s another game and playing there is always complicated. In front of their fans, they are a team that has quality and it is always difficult to beat them. We got a good result and we have to keep it up.”
