Crystal Palace 1-0 Cardiff City

The result means a clean sheet in the second leg later this month will guarantee the Eagles their first ever final appearance in the competition.

Manager Dougie Freedman's pre-match plans had been severely disrupted by a virus in the camp which had threatened to rule out the likes of Julian Speroni, Paddy McCarthy, Anthony Gardner, Nathaniel Clyne, Mile Jedinak and Sean Scannell.

The bad news for Freedman was that Clyne didn't recover in time, but at least the remainder did, with all except substitute Scannell making it into a strong looking starting XI which also included star man Wilfried Zaha.

In fact, Palace named a completely different line-up from the one which lost 1-0 at Derby in the FA Cup on Saturday.

Cardiff started brightly and were presented with a great opportunity to test Speroni on six minutes after Kagisho Dikgacoi tripped Kevin McNaughton just outside of the area.

Peter Whittingham stepped up to take the free-kick but his low shot took a deflection off the defensive wall before the Eagles keeper gathered.

And Speroni had to be alert again five minutes later when he got down low to catch Joe Ralls' 20-yard effort.

An unmarked Glenn Murray headed the ball downwards and harmlessly behind after meeting Darren Ambrose's 13th minute corner.

Ben Turner's 20th minute header went only inches over the bar when he shook off the attentions of Anthony Gardner to get on the end of Whittingham's corner.

Palace came close when Zaha's 27th minute low delivery from the left was played by Chris Martin into the path of Dikgacoi, but his shot was pushed out by Bluebirds keeper Tom Heaton.

Kenny Miller's curling shot from the left of the Palace area flew just wide of Speroni's far post.

But despite being under the cosh for long periods of the first half, it was Freedman's side who got their noses in front two minutes before the break.

Ambrose swung a deep free-kick into a packed penalty area and although Heaton came out to try and punch the ball away, he was beaten to it by the head of Jedinak, whose flick on was headed home at the far post by Gardner from three yards.

Zaha just failed to control the ball when he met Ambrose's delivery two minutes after the restart.

Had he done so, he would have been one-on-ne with Heaton and presented with a great opportunity to double Palace's advantage.

Martin was unlucky when he got a touch on Ambrose's cross-shot three minutes later and his effort went just wide.

Palace fans were screaming for a penalty in the 52nd minute after Jonathan Parr's cross hit Don Cowie, although it had landed on the Cardiff player's thigh and not his hand.

Speroni had to scramble back and push behind Ralls' shot and although Miller headed in from the resultant corner, the 'goal' was ruled out for a foul on the Eagles keeper, one which wasn't immediately clear even after the replays.

Gardner placed a header wide from another Ambrose free-kick, while Ralls' long range 25 yard drive forced Speroni to get down low to save.

Palace were awarded a 77th minute free-kick outside of the centre of the box and although Ambrose's effort cleared the wall, it failed to trouble Heaton.

Freedman then made his first alteration by taking off Martin for Scannell.

Ralls fired wildly over when unmarked 10 yards out after good build up play from the visitors.

Ambrose went on a brilliant 84th minute run before being tripped by Ralls 30 yards from goal, an offence which earned the Cardiff player the first yellow card of the game.

But the normally lethal dead ball expert Ambrose failed to live up to his high standards with the free-kick, placing it miles over the bar and into the Holmesdale.

A period of Cardiff pressure saw Miller try his luck with an overhead kick, Aaron Gunnarsson fire over and Whittingham see a shot deflected behind for a corner.

But Palace survived the scare and four minutes of stoppage time to take the narrowest of advantages to the Welsh capital for what promises to be a tense second leg.

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Crystal Palace: Speroni, Parr, McCarthy, Gardner, Ambrose, Dikgacoi, Jedinak, Zaha (Easter 90), Murray, Martin (Scannell 78), Ramage. Subs not used: Price, Wright, Garvan, O'Keefe, Andrew. Att: 22,147.