Mixing two column and one column in page with figures

Question

I am writing a two column paper and I am struggling with forcing the layout of one specific page. This page should contain 4 figures, each with a caption, and a general paragraph discussing them. I would like to break from two columns to one column for the paragraph so that I would get something like:

At the moment I am using:

\twocolumn[{
 \begin{@twocolumnfalse}
\paragraph{Discussion}
yadiyada
\end{@twocolumnfalse}
}]

which gives me a two column page with the 4 figures, three on the left column and one on the right column; and a second one-column page with the discussion.

I have tried using minipage for the first time but with no success.

Answer 1

See, if the following MWE gives what you like to obtain:

\documentclass[twoside,twocolumn]{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{caption}
\usepackage{subcaption}
\usepackage{stfloats} % for positioning of figure* on the same page
\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}
\lipsum[1]
    \begin{figure*}[b]
\begin{subfigure}{0.48\linewidth}
    \includegraphics[width=\linewidth, height=0.5\linewidth]{example-image-a}
\caption{Figure A}
    \label{fig:a}
\end{subfigure}
    \hfill
\begin{subfigure}{0.48\linewidth}
    \includegraphics[width=\linewidth, height=0.5\linewidth]{example-image-b}
\caption{Figure B}
    \label{fig:b}
\end{subfigure}

\begin{subfigure}{0.48\linewidth}
    \includegraphics[width=\linewidth, height=0.5\linewidth]{example-image-C}
\caption{Figure C}
    \label{fig:c}
\end{subfigure}
    \hfill
\begin{subfigure}{0.48\linewidth}
    \includegraphics[width=\linewidth, height=0.5\linewidth]{example-image}
\caption{Figure D}
    \label{fig:d}
\end{subfigure}
\caption{Common caption}
\lipsum[11]
\end{figure*}
\lipsum*[2-5]
\end{document}

o.png