Barcelona take slender first leg lead

GELSENKIRCHEN, Germany -- Barcelona's teenage striker Bojan Krkic scored the only goal to give the Catalan giants a 1-0 victory at Schalke in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal.

Krkic, who will not turn 18 until the end of August, struck in the 12th minute with a valuable away goal to put Barca firmly in the driving seat for the second leg at the Nou Camp.

The goal came after a dream pass from Xavi Hernandez split open Schalke's defense, finding Thierry Henry free on the left.

The French striker fired in an angled shot which Schalke keeper Manuel Neuer parried. However, Henry reacted quickly to slide the re-bound across goal for Krkic to bury his shot in the top of the empty net.

It was cruel luck on Neuer, the hero in Portugal last month when his outstanding performance denied Porto and secured the German side a place in the last eight.

Schalke worked hard to get back in the game but strikers Gerald Asamoah and Kevin Kuranyi failed to find their range, despite the home side having more possession in the first-half.

Schalke have not reached the last eight of Europe's elite club competition for almost five decades, but now face a mountain to climb for the return leg as the second-half proved as fruitless as the first 45 minutes.

Both Asamoah and Turkey striker Halil Altintop went close to forcing the equalizer within minutes of each other at the 70 minute mark, but Barcelona's defense held firm.

A curling pass from Germany defender Heiko Westermann put Danish substitute striker Soeren Larsen into a threatening position, but his header went wide with 10 minutes to go.

Barcelona are now over-whelming favorites to make the semifinals, and a likely-looking showdown with Manchester United, in their bid to repeat their 2006 Champions League triumph.

"We should have put them under more pressure from the start. It's not going to be easy in Barcelona but we wouldn't be going there if we didn't have any hope," said Schalke coach Mirko Slomka. E-mail to a friend