Barca grab Copa advantage

Barca head into next week's Copa del Rey quarterfinal second leg with a slight advantage following their 1-0 victory over Atletico Madrid in Wednesday's first leg at the Camp Nou in Barcelona.

Lionel Messi scored in the 85th minute after his missed penalty to secure the victory for the hosts. The awarded spot kick for Juanfran's foul on Sergio Busquets was a controversial one and will surely be a talking point in the week to come before next Thursday's second leg at Madrid's Estadio Vicente Calderon.

Outside of Marc-Andre ter Stegen replacing Claudio Bravo, Barcelona manager Luis Enrique kept the same starting formation that defeated Deportivo over the weekend with South American trio Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez up front, a midfield consisting of Andres Iniesta, Ivan Rakitic and Busquets, and Jordi Alba, Javier Mascherano, Gerard Pique and Dani Alves in defense.

After starting Fernando Torres and Mario Mandzukic up top together in the weekend victory over Granada, Atletico manager Diego Simeone opted to leave the Croatian on the bench to start and with Torres as his lone striker in a return to a 4-2-3-1 formation. Jan Oblak started in goal and was shielded by a back four of Juanfran, Joao Miranda, Diego Godin and Guilherme Siqueira. Gabi and Maria Suarez slotted into the defensive midfield anchored in as the holding midfielders, while Koke, Arda Turan and Antoine Griezmann supported Torres in attack.

Looking to repeat their sizzling performance from ten days prior when they beat Atletico 3-1 in league play, Barcelona took the initiative at the start an a Neymar effort from 25 yards out in the fourth minute required a heads up save from Oblak. Atletico remained penned back by the Barcelona attack and were only able to muster an occasional counter in the first 15 minutes. However, Simeone's men grew into the game and soon earned several corner kicks, which forced Barcelona to be at their defensive best.

The best chance of the first half came on 35 minutes with Suarez firing over the crossbar from close range. Rakitic lofted a ball into the Uruguayan striker, who looked to turn and hit it on the fly, but he was unable to get the effort from target. Three minutes later it was Atletico threatening with Torres and Griezmann with a two-on-one, but Pique did exceptionally well to sniff it out and prevent a shot on Ter Stegen's goal.

The stalemate between the two sides drifted into the final half hour, with Barcelona still controlling the tempo of the match, but neither team really showing much of a threat, perhaps in fear of conceding a goal in the first leg of the two-legged tie.

In the final 20 minutes the match was marked more by a series of protests and controversial calls as Suarez felt wronged for a supposed trip by Miranda on a ball right outside the Atlético area in the 75th minute. Five minutes later it was Mascherano looking indignant after being issued a yellow card for protesting to the referee after Turan escaped a warning for a hand ball in the 80th minute.

But three minutes later it was Atletico left screaming at the referee as Juanfran was whistled for a foul on Busquets and the penalty was called. Messi stepped up to the spot and had his initial effort saved by Oblak, but the rebound fell right back to the Argentine who thundered in his follow up to give Barcelona the 1-0 lead.

A second goal in the match was not to be had as the two sides will resume La Liga play on the weekend before their crucial return leg next Wednesday.