In the first leg of the Champions League Quarter-final, Barcelona had to face Dortmund. Facing a difficult opponent, Hansi Flick and his team won 4-0. This result has helped Barcelona almost reach the Semi-finals, although they still have a return away match.
In this match, Raphinha opened the scoring for Barcelona in the 25th minute. After a direct free kick, Pau Cubarsi did a great job when he started to launch a shot that defeated goalkeeper Dortmund. When the ball was close to the goal line, Raphinha suddenly rushed in to tap the ball into the net and became the goalscorer.
It was because of Raphinha's dribble that Barcelona almost lost a goal, because the Brazilian player was blown offside by the referee. Fortunately, when VAR intervened, the 28-year-old star turned out to be in a valid position when scoring.
Former Real Madrid star Steve Mc Manaman criticized Raphinha, for "stealing" his teammate's goal. He was quoted by Metro: "Imagine the scene where you try to steal that from your friend. Imagine the scene where you step out like that.
It is not necessary. He is greedy and wants to score. Fortunately, Raphinha was cleared of the debt and was not offside. He can see the whole picture, he can see the ball going into the net. There is absolutely no need to do so. He almost ruined it, because it was probably a beautiful goal.
Raphinha also admitted that he was at fault for being too greedy. He revealed that he apologized to his teammate Pau Cubarsi after the match: What was the first goal? I apologize Pau!".
Despite the controversy, the goal still helped Raphinha increase his total goals to 12 goals and 7 assists (total of 19 goals) in the Champions League this season. Thereby, the Brazilian striker has compared the achievements of Lionel Messi, who scored 14 goals and had 5 assists in the 2011-12 Champions League season.
