A second half goal from FC Barcelona's young striker Bojan Krkic gave his side a 1-0 Copa del Rey (King's Cup) triumph away to Benidorm on Tuesday.

Although both sides have to play the second leg of the tie in two week's time, anything other than a comfortable win for Barcelona against a side from the third tier of Spanish football would be a major surprise.

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola took the opportunity to give youngsters such as Victor Sanchez and Sergio Busquets a place in his starting line-up and give a rare outing to veteran defender Sylvinho. But there were plenty of first team regulars in the Barcelona 11.

Nevertheless the football on display was less than impressive, although Barcelona were always the better side on a pitch that had been affected by the heavy rain.

Brazilian full back Dani Alves was Barcelona's best player in the first half. But despite his efforts down the right, the half time whistle was blown with no change to the original score.

That changed after 55 minutes, when Bojan scored the only goal of the game. The 18-year-old has not had as many first team chances this season as he may have expected, but that did not stop him reacting quickly to a pass from Sanchez to fire home the only goal of the match.

Benidorm worked hard, but lacked the quality to trouble Barcelona and although the visitors took their foot off the gas and failed to add any further goals, their place in the last 16 is all but assured.

(Xinhua News Agency October 29, 2008)