Holders Barcelona are well placed to reach the semi-finals of the Spanish Cup once again after prevailing 2-1 Wednesday at Athletic Bilbao in an interesting quarter-final first leg.
Youngster Munir, standing in for the injured Lionel Messi, gave Barca the lead in the 18th minute by turning in a centre from Ivan Rakitic.
And just seven minutes later, Neymar made it 2-0 after Bilbao keeper Iago Herrerin had failed to block a centre from stand-in left-back Sergi Roberto.  
The polyvalent Sergi Roberto turned in an excellent performance in what was a new position for him, covering well for injured left-backs Jordi Alba and Jeremy Mathieu.
Bilbao gradually recovered their confidence, though without ever threatening to turn the game around.
A minute from the end, with Barca relaxing excessively, a mistake from defender Dani Alves lead to fellow veteran Aritz Aduriz pulling a consolation goal back for Bilbao.
Even so, the Basques will have a mountain to climb to salvage the tie in the second leg - to be played in the Camp Nou January 27 - needing to win away by a two-goal margin.
Sunday saw Bilbao thumped 6-0 at the Camp Nou in La Liga Sunday.  
“We know full well it will be difficult to win in Barcelona,” Aduriz said.
“But we are certainly going to try. They are a very good team, as they showed again tonight, even without Messi ... But they are by no means unbeatable.”
Meanwhile, Barca’s Alves bemoaned the late Bilbao goal that he facilitated with his error.
“We dropped our intensity towards the end, and that was a mistake.  Then I gifted them with that goal ... But we should not forget that we turned in a good display tonight, getting what is really a good result.”
Earlier on, Atletico Madrid were held 0-0 at defiant Celta Vigo Wednesday in a tight clash.
The closest that Atletico came to breaking the deadlock was in the 55th minute, when Jackson Martinez forced a sharp save from Celta keeper Ruben Blanco.
Celta gradually came out of their defensive shell towards the end, and Iago Aspas had a low drive saved by Atletico keeper Miguel Angel Moya. Afterwards, Atletico captain Gabi had to be on toes to prevent what would have been a clumsy own goal from team-mate Augusto Fernandez.
The well-drilled Atletico defence has not conceded a single goal in the league and cup. Diego Simeone’s hard-working team is top of La Liga, having conceded just eight goals in 20 games, which is a new Spanish record.
“We were again strong in defence,” Atletico’s defensive leader Diego Godin said.
“It is so important for us not to be conceding goals. It’s true that we were not very sharp in attack, but at least we managed to prevent them from scoring.”
Meanwhile, Celta’s Fabian Orellana tried to strike a positive note about the second leg, saying: “This is not really a bad result for us, to be honest.
“If we manage to score next week in Madrid, then we have a good chance of going through.”
Thursday will see, in the other quarter-finals, troubled Valencia against Las Palmas, while Sevilla will be at home to second division giant-killers Mirandes.