Winning ugly: Blaugrana's new motto

MADRID, April 2: Barcelona's ability to weather some heavy pressure from Schalke 04 in the closing stages of their Champions League victory in Gelsenkirchen could help revive their flagging fortunes.

The Blaugrana clinched a 1-0 win in the quarter-final first leg thanks to an early strike from forward Bojan Krkic, but although they dominated for much of Tuesday's match they found themselves on the ropes as Schalke piled forward in the closing minutes.

A series of sharp saves from goalkeeper Victor Valdes, some gritty defending from centre back Gabriel Milito and some streetwise time-wasting from captain Carles Puyol helped the visitors hang on for a valuable win.

"It's about time we gave our fans something to cheer about," Puyol told reporters. "It is an important win for us especially after everything else that has been happening at the moment. I think we're on track in the tie."

Puyol, who received a booking for time-wasting at the end of the game, admitted Barca had been prepared to drop their usual attacking style in order to win through.

"When you are suffering at the end of a game and the opposition are attacking, time-wasting is one way to cool things down," the veteran defender said.

"I was annoyed that I got booked because I was just waiting for the referee to blow the final whistle when he showed me the card," he added.

Striker Samuel Eto'o said team confidence had been boosted by the fact that, unlike in recent games in Spain, they had managed to hold on for the win.

"We had to work very hard because they pressured us a lot in the second half," he told reporters. "We've been playing quite well recently but we've been losing other games in the closing minutes.