The Barcelona striker believes defeat to Dortmund can teach his team a vital lesson and make them more prepared to win the Champions League.
Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski has said that his side’s 3-1 defeat to Borussia Dortmund at the Signal Iduna Park on Tuesday night will only make them stronger.
Speaking after the game, the forward admitted that the team were disappointed to see their unbeaten run in 2025 come to an end. However, he believes that the loss can prepare them in terms of the level they need to be at if they are to win the Champions League this season.
“On the one hand, we’re happy that we’re playing the semi-finals,” said Lewandowski, “but when we’re looking back on the game, we know that it wasn’t a perfect game for us.
“But in the end I think we can take something good for the future, learn something from this game – that in the Champions League you always have to be 100 per cent.”
Barcelona had won the first leg of the tie 4-0 after dominating every aspect of the game. But they started the second leg slowly, and Dortmund soon went ahead after goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny fouled Pascal Gross in the box and Serhou Guirassy converted from the penalty spot.
By the second half, when Guirassy had made it 2-0, it looked like Barcelona were in danger of collapsing. But La Blaugrana soon halved Dortmund’s lead when defender Ramy Bensebaini turned the ball into his own net under pressure from Lewandowski. Although Dortmund would later get a third goal, there was never really any hope left of them mounting a comeback.
“In the end it’s done and now we’re in the semi-finals,” said Lewandowski. He believes that by absorbing the lessons from this loss his side now have what it takes to do even better in the next round.
“We’re looking forward to both legs of our semi-final match. We’re going to play like we know what we want and we can play our best football.
“For us as a team we have so many young players. They will be able to learn that the Champions League is always the Champions League, you have to be ready. You cannot play at 95 per cent.
“I think sometimes it’s better to have this kind of game happen now than later, because later for sure we won’t have space for this kind of mistake.”
