Ernesto Valverde believes Luis Suarez’s late goal during Barcelona’s 4-1 victory over Roma in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie has tipped the contest in their favour.

Barca now appear almost certain to advance through the last four following their commanding victory at the Camp Nou on Wednesday, although there was an element of luck about their first two goals, as Daniele De Rossi and Kostas Manolas both put the ball in the back of their own net.

Gerard Pique then added a third for the Blaugrana just before the hour mark, but Roma had hope in the tie when Edin Dzeko grabbed a late away goal, only for the hosts to restore their three-goal advantage with three minutes remaining thanks to Suarez’s strike.

Valverde conceded there was an element of luck about some of the goals Barca scored, but he believes they thoroughly deserved to win the match and he is convinced Suarez’s goal will prove to be a particularly vital one.

“Football is a game of errors,” Valverde said on uefa.com.

“You want to make your rivals commit them and to avoid them yourself. We all want our players to be perfect and never make errors but we all do. Even coaches.

“During the season there are all types of games. Ones where you merit more than you get and ones were you get more than you merit. We scored the goals we merited, they attacked us and got the goal they were looking for, which made our fourth very important.”

The return leg at the Stadio Olimpico is due to take place on Tuesday and Barca are priced at 1.67 to secure a victory on the night, while Roma are available at 4.50 and the draw is on offer at 4.00.