Barcelona to face Real Madrid in Copa del Rey 'El Classico' final

Barcelona and Real Madrid progressed through the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey on Wednesday to set up an 'El Classico' final.

Barca, holding an indomitable 5-0 lead from their first leg against Almeria, added three more at the Estadio de los Juegos Mediterraneos to go through with an aggregate of 8-0.

Despite resting most of the starting 11, including the likes Lionel Messi, David Villa and Xavi, Barca were rarely threatened since Almeria's Sofiane Feghouli hit the post in the 27th minute. Barca opened the scoring seven minutes later through a fine individual effort from Adriano.

Ten minutes into the second half, Thiago headed into the far corner to make it 2-0, before Afellay scored his first goal for the club in the 65^th minute to wrap up the scoring.

Barca were untroubled for most of the game, but the same couldn't be said of the second semi-final between Real Madrid and Sevilla.

In a hard-fought encounter, chances were few and far between and Madrid had a tough time breaking the holders defence. However, they could have taken the lead within five minutes when Angel Di Maria's shot bounced back off the post before Karim Benzema shot high off the rebound, with the goal at his mercy.

Sevilla had a goal disallowed on one of the few occasions they threatened the Madrid rear. Former Madrid striker Alvaro Negredo lobbed over keeper Iker Casillas and into the goal, only to see the linesman raise his flag for offside.

Cristiano Ronaldo, Di Maria and Benzema were all guilty of missing chances for Madrid. However, Sevilla's hopes of taking the game into extra time were dismissed late on when Mesut Ozil put the Whites ahead after being slipped in by German teammate Sami Khedira.

Sevilla then went down to ten men after Sanchez was shown a second yellow for a foul on Emmanuel Adebayor. With a man's advantage, Madrid made sure of the win when Adebayor, on loan from Manchester City, scored his first goal for the club after chesting down Diarra's ball before volleying into the roof of the net.

The final will be the first time since 1990 when Barca and Madrid face each other in a Copa del Rey final. On that occasion the Catalan side won 2-0.