Roberto Soldado scored the only goal of the all-Spanish clash in the 55th minute as hosts Osasuna, playing in their first-ever semi-final, built a narrow lead to take to the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan for next week's second leg.

Sevilla had the first sight of goal in the 12th minute when Frederic Kanoute got a good connection on Daniel Alves' cross from the right, but the Mali international was unable to keep his shot down and the ball screamed just over the crossbar from eight yards out.

Osasuna threatened for the first time soon after that with a well-struck Patxi Punal effort which flew narrowly wide of goal from 25 yards out.

Alves and Julien Escude then had attempts for Sevilla, while Raul Garcia tried his luck from distance for Osasuna, but none of them were on target as the two goalkeepers, Ricardo and David Cobeno, enjoyed a fairly untroubled opening half-hour.

Cobena was finally called into action in the 34th minute to make a decent stop to keep out Garcia's header following a well-worked Osasuna free-kick.

Osasuna were beginning to get the upper hand at this stage, and Cobena again needed to be alert to keep out a long-distance effort from Garcia.

At the other end, former Tottenham and West Ham striker Kanoute failed to make the most of a shooting opportunity before Osasuna twice came close to breaking the deadlock on the stroke of half-time.

The first chance saw skipper Cesar Cruchaga send a glancing header just wide of the far post, before the unmarked Carlos Cuellar wasted arguably the best chance of the half when he was unable turn home a free-kick at the far post.

Cuellar got to the cross easily enough and although his header beat Cobeno it bounced across the face of goal and was hacked away before any of his team-mates could get to the loose ball.

Sevilla came out stronger at the start of the second half and Luis Fabiano soon had the ball in the Osasuna net, although the effort was correctly ruled out for offside.

It was not long after that disallowed goal that Osasuna took the lead in what was a bitter-sweet moment for striker Soldado.

Soldado won a free-kick on the right but, in the same incident, he also subsequently hacked down Javi Navarro to earn himself a yellow card that will keep him out of the second leg.

However, Soldado's misery soon turned to glee as he got on the end of the resulting free-kick from Punal to send a glancing header into the far corner of the net to make it 1-0.

David Lopez really should have made it 2-0 in the 61st minute but he skied his close-range shot over the bar following a nod-down by former Aston Villa striker Savo Milosevic.

Sevilla's defence were being torn to shreds at this point and seconds later Soldado broke clear before curling an effort just over, before Milosevic headed another chance wide.

The match was then stopped for around 10 minutes after referee Eric Braamhaar was unable to continue, with fourth official Peter Vink taking over in the middle.

That break gave Sevilla a chance to re-group and, having weathered the Osasuna storm, they very nearly claimed a late equaliser when substitute Alexander Kerzhakov's shot from an Alves cross looped just inches over the bar.

Kanoute then drew a last-gasp save out of Ricardo as Osasuna held on for the victory.