Spanish league strugglers Osasuna turned on the style to claim a precious 1-0 home win over reigning UEFA Cup champions Sevilla in the first leg of their semi-final in Pamplona on Thursday.
And an all-Spanish final in Glasgow on May 16 looks a distinct possibility after Espanyol defeated German side Werder Bremen 3-0 in the other semi-final first leg in Barcelona.
Osasuna came out fired up but appeared to be lacking the required focus in the early stages when veteran striker Savo Milosevic threw Sevilla's Christian Poulsen to the ground with a forceful shove in the face.
However the Serbian's conspicuous foul, which went unpunished by the referee, was followed by a period of first half domination for the hosts, who finally broke the deadlock in the 55th minute.
Osasuna midfielder David Lopez was a thorn throughout for Sevilla, who struggled to find their game and had even more trouble getting the ball to their usually effective striker Fredi Kanoute.
The hosts' first sight of goal came in the 15th minute when Lopez completed a mazy run on the left, ghosting past three defenders to set up Patxi Punal, whose first-time shot flew just wide of David Cobeno's post.
Another Lopez cross then found the head of Juanfran Torres, whose close range header at the far post forced Cobeno to get down low to collect.
When Lopez delivered a more telling cross from a freekick on the right wing 10 minutes after the restart, Cobeno was left clutching at thin air as Roberto Soldado's rising header went in at the far post.
Soldado narrowly missed claiming his second goal on 63 minutes when he ran unchallenged down the left flank, cut inside his defender and sent his long curling effort just over the top left hand corner.
Six minutes of injury time were allocated, but despite close efforts from Sevilla's Daniel and a late strike from Kanoute, Osasuna held on for a well-deserved win which could prove decisive ahead of the second leg next week.
In Barcelona Espanyol were in front midway through the first half when Moises Hurtado headed into the top corner after an Ivan de la Pena corner.
Moises later picked up a yellow card ruling him out of the second leg trip to Bremen next week.
Espanyol doubled their lead when the competition's leading scorer, Walter Pandiani, got their second shortly after the break.
Again it came from a De La Pena corner with Pandiani heading the ball in at the near post for his 11th UEFA Cup goal.
But like his teammate Moises he will also miss next week's trip to Germany after picking up a 67th minute booking.
Bremen's task was made all the more difficult when their goalkeeper Tim Wiese was sent off in the 58th minute for a professional foul on Raul Tamudo.
Ferran Corominas came on for Francisco Rufete in the 83rd minute and five minutes later the substitute made his mark on the game, turning in Albert Riera's low cross for Espanyol's third goal.
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