Result: FC Barcelona 3-1 Borussia Dortmund
Date: 27 November 2019
Venue: Camp Nou
Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezman were all on target as FC Barcelona thrashed Borussia Dortmund to reach the UEFA Champions League knockout stage.
Everything was on the line for both sides who missed Gerard Pique and Paco Alcacer through suspension and injury respectively, as Ivan Rakitic return to midfield for Barca.
Barcelona came to the clash on top of the group after two wins and two draws, with Dortmund hot on their heels in second spot on seven points.
Ernesto Valverde threw in an early change well inside the 26th minute as Antoine Griezmann entered in place Ousmane Dembele, who left the field due to a suspected injury.
The alteration didn’t affect the home side at all as Luis Suarez pulled clear to finish off a pass from Lionel Messi three minutes later from close range after the visitors went to sleep.
Messi then, making a record-breaking 700th appearance for Barca, doubled their tally when he fired beyond Roman Burki after combining with Suarez from the edge of the area 33 minutes gone.
The more clear-cut chances remained strongly with the Catalans straight after halftime, as Lucien Favre introduced Jadon Sancho for Nico Schulz at the same token.
Dortmund looked to pull an advantage ten minutes after the break when Sancho setup Julian Brandt from the left, who then drew a low save from Marc Ter Stegen at the near post.
The Catalan giants eventually added to their advantage 67 minutes in after Griezmann managed to get behind the defence for a first-time finish past Burki following a superb pass from Messi.
Dortmund were on the scoresheet 12 minutes before fulltime after Sancho powered Brandt’s knockback into the top right corner from the edge of the area.
No comeback sprung forward from the visitors though, as Barcelona picked up all the points to qualify for the knockout stages as group winners
