Ernesto Valverde has stressed the importance of allowing Barcelona star Lionel Messi room to breathe.

The Argentine was the catalyst in handing Barca a 1-0 advantage in their Copa del Rey semi-final tie with Valencia.

The 30-year-old provided an assist from nothing for Luis Suarez’s 67th-minute winner at Camp Nou and boss Valverde discussed the pressure on his star man’s shoulders after the victory.

“What happens with Messi is that every time he gets the ball, you expect him to do something,” Valverde told his press conference via ESPN.

“Sometimes that’s excessive because you have to let him breathe a bit, but it’s spectacular to watch him. From an improbable situation, he’s dug out a cross and we’ve scored.”

Barca dominated the first-half but struggled to trouble Los Che stopper Jaume Domenech.

With such a slender advantage heading into next week’s second leg at the Mestalla, a place in the final is still very much up for grabs.

The Blaugrana will hope their inability to translate possession into goals won’t come back to bite them.

“As much as we wanted to attack well, we didn’t want to allow any counter-attacks,” Valverde added. “Valencia are dangerous in that regard and that’s what they were looking for.

“They defended well, kept their two lines of four together and left very little space through the middle. There was more space out wide and we could have solved things earlier with better luck from one of our crosses.

“We would have liked to have scored more goals but it’s still a good scoreline because we won — and because Valencia did not score. We will try to defend our advantage there next week.”