Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde was delighted with victory over their Copa del Rey win over Espanyol.

Barca overcame last week's 1-0 first leg defeat to eliminate Espanyol 2-1 on aggregate from the Copa del Rey quarter-finals with a 2-0 second leg victory on Thursday night at the Camp Nou.

First-half goals from Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi proved to be enough to send Barcelona to the semi-finals.

Philippe Coutinho was introduced in the second half for Andres Iniesta to make his Blaugrana debut.

"We have a lot of hopes for him, in the sense that he can be very good for our style of play," said Valverde.

"His self-confidence, his one-on-one dribbling, his ability to escape defenders, his passing around the area and the danger he poses can all help us.

"I think he did well in this game, but let's see what happens.

"This is just the beginning."

There was a notable upturn in attendance at the Camp Nou for the home side's derby win, with almost 80,000 turning out for the game, which has been in contrast with the rest of the season.

Valverde hopes it can remain that way.

"For us, the support is fundamental," he said. "It was palpable from the first minute of this game and the fans were plugged in from the start.

"The support of our fans is priceless and I hope it continues to be like that.

"We play for them, to make them happy, and we want them to come here to help us.

"That kind of environment is important and it favours us at home and we want our fans to give us a hand."