Real won a tempestuous encounter 1-0 at holders Sevilla thanks to Karim Benzema’s driven effort, though Sevilla were aggrieved that a seemingly legitimate goal was disallowed just before half time.
Barcelona won their semi-final first leg 5-0 against Almeria, with Lionel Messi scoring twice, with David Villa and Pedro also scoring to put the Catalans 4-0 up after half an hour. At that point, a repeat of the 8-0 thrashing Barcelona handed to the same opponents in the league earlier in the season looked on the cards, but they only scored one more, in the last minutes as Seydou Keita wrapped up a comfortable win.
