Spanish UEFA Cup?

Barcelona Espanyol headed in two goals from corner kicks in front of a home crowd Thursday night and gave Thomas Schaaf's side a clear outline of what the team will have to improve before the semi-final's second leg kicks off place in Bremen.

Espanyol moved out in front of Bremen midway through the first half when Moises Hurtado headed into goal on an Ivan de la Pena corner, then doubled their lead shortly after the halftime break when Walter Pandiani put in another de la Pena corner kick. Espanyol's third goal came in the game's final minutes from substitute Ferran Corominas.

German international Torsten Frings said Bremen would have a difficult time preventing an all-Spanish UEFA Cup final in Glasgow on May 16.

Bremen need a "miracle"

"You can't make mistakes like that if you want to be the UEFA Cup winners, 3-0 is a big loss," he said. "We'll need a pretty big miracle. With a performance like this one, we don't have a chance."

The German side, which hasn't lost a Bundesliga match since mid-February, appeared to have forgotten to unpack its offensive arsenal made up of playmaker Diego and World Cup Golden Boot winner Miroslav Klose, neither of whom were able to leave an impression on the match.

Both teams will be without key players for this Thursday's second leg. Goal scorers Moises and Pandiani both received yellow cards and will be will be suspended for the match in Bremen.

The Bundesliga side finished the match with 10 men and will play with a back-up goalie between the posts after Tim Wiese received a red card for hauling down Espanyol striker Raul Tamudo outside the area.

"After the red card it was difficult for us to get back into it," Schaaf said. "We are going to have to put in an exceptional performance (in the return leg) if we are to progress."

Sevilla face manageable task

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 the competition's other semi-final.

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 -- an unpunished -- shove in the face.

David Lopez, arguably Osasuna's man-of-the-match, delivered a cross 10 minutes after the restart, that left Sevilla's keeper clutching at air when Roberto Soldado's header drove its way 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.

Shortly thereafter the referee walked off the pitch, followed by the players, when it appeared he had been hit with an object thrown from the crowd.

Six minutes of injury time were later allocated for the interruption, but despite close efforts on Sevilla's part to snatch an undeserved draw, Osasuna held on for a well-deserved win that could prove decisive ahead of the second leg next week.