Madrid: Luis Suarez headed in the only goal as defending champions Barcelona edged Valencia 1-0 in their Copa del Rey semifinal first leg encounter at a half-full Camp Nou here Thursday.
Barcelona, the record 29-time winners of the tournament, are attempting to become the first team to lift the Cup four years in a row since Athletic Bilbao in the 1930s.
Barcelona dominated possession but had to wait until the 67th minute for the breakthrough against the hard-working Valencia who were missing some key players.
Not surprisingly, Lionel Messi was the man who unlocked the Valencia defence before setting up Suarez. The Argentine danced his way into the penalty area before a deft left-footed chip left three defenders out of position and allowed Suarez to score from the edge of six-yard box with a diving header.
The tight affair Thursday was dramatically different to the last time these two teams met at the same stage two years ago – Barcelona won 8-1 on aggregate following a 7-0 win in the first leg.
“We have a small advantage but there’s still 90 minutes to play and it’ll be a long 90 minutes as Valencia are very strong when they play at home,” said Suarez who has now scored 13 times in the last 11 games.
Valencia coach Marcelino opted for a cautious approach, with his side having under 20 per cent possession at one point in the game. The visitors’ best chances came from distance strikes at goal, with Martin Montoya and Francis Coquelin narrowly missing the target either side of half time.
“It’s not a good result for us but we deserve credit for how we competed,” Marcelino said. “It makes the tie very difficult but keeps it alive. We’re going to fight with all our strength to win the tie. It might seem impossible but we’ll try and pull off a miracle,” added Marcelino.
Agencies
