New Delhi: Barcelona earned only a slender lead from the first leg of their Copa del Rey encounter with third tier Benidorm after Bojan Krkic netted the only goal of the game.
The Blaugrana are clear favourites to progress to the last 16 with the second game still to come in Camp Nou, but they had to survive the odd scare from the home team.
Coach Pep Guardiola named a relatively strong side that included a back line of Dani Alves, Eric Abidal, Gerard Pique and Martin Caceres while Aliaksandr Hleb and Bojan also started.
Benidorm went in to the game unbeaten in their last six matches in Group III of la Segunda B and could have caused what would have been a huge surprise by earning something from the match.
Early chances from Hleb and Sylvinho, who was pushed up to play on the left of midfield, but the hosts showed that they were not prepared to lie down as they tested Jose Manuel Pinto in the opening 15 minutes.
It was more of a shock that Barca did go into the break on level terms after creating several opportunities, but it was never going to be easy when the game was played with a slower rhythm than they are accustomed to.
Guardiola's half-time talk evidently had the desired effect as Barca came out and scored with their first chance of the second period as Bojan finally broke the deadlock after 54 minutes.
The young striker showed great control before beating Caballero from outside the area, even the though the keeper did touch the ball on the way in.
Benidorm quickly made two changes to try and turn the game around, but Barcleona held out and could have taken a bigger lead into the second leg with Pique having yet another chance, having already spurned four opportunities.
Rain had soaked the Barca players that were not chosen for the trip as they trained in front of La Masia on Tuesday and the weather followed the squad down the coast.
In the final few minutes, the game became difficult to play as the Estadio Foietes became inundated with water and had the downpour come before kick off, the game may not have taken place.
The Blaugrana are set to return to training at 11.30 on Wednesday morning in order to begin preparations for Saturday evening's game against Malaga in La Rosaleda.
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