Barcelona have beaten Malaga 1-0 in La Liga, thanks to a Thomas Vermaelen goal.

The hosts had a goal disallowed within the first four minutes when Luis Suarez was deemed to be climbing on Marcos Angeleri at a corner.

The Malaga defence was proving tough for Barcelona to breach in the early stages. Javier Mascherano sent a long-range effort into Idriss Kameni's arms, and Lionel Messi's shot was deflected past the left post.

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Mascherano came close to scoring in the 26th minute, when his head met a Messi cross, but the ball rebounded off the crossbar.

Barcelona felt they should have had a penalty awarded in the 39th minute for a Miguel Torres handball, but the referee waved the appeals away.

Just two minutes later, Barcelona had another claim for a penalty. This time, Angeleri appeared to foul Suarez but nothing was given and the teams went in level at the break.

Messi had a chance to give Barcelona the lead in the 53rd minute when he was found by a Neymar through-ball but Kameni came out to deny the Argentine.

Five minutes later, it was Messi versus Kameni once again. A shot towards the near post forced Kameni into a reaction save.

The contest continued in the 70th minute and, once again, it was Kameni who frustrated Messi by stopping the shot.

Barcelona finally made the breakthrough in the 73rd minute when Vermaelen headed into an empty net after Suarez's shot was parried.

Suarez then nearly got in on the act himself, but his shot hit the side-netting.

Charles came closest to grabbing a stoppage-time equaliser when Duje Cop's cross was directed towards him but Jordi Alba made the last-ditch tackle and Barcelona held onto the three points.