VALENCIA, May 7: Spanish league leaders Valencia edged their way into the UEFA Cup final on Thursday with a tight 1-0 home defeat of local neighbours Villarreal.

There they will meet Olympique Marseille, who earlier overcame Newcastle United 2-0 at the Velodrome with both goals coming from highly rated striker Didier Drogba.

The tense win in the Mestalla puts Valencia through the final, which takes place in Gothenburg on May 19, on a minimal 1-0 aggregate, thanks to an early penalty put away by Mista Ferrer.

Urged on by the capacity 52,000 crowd, Valencia made an aggressive start. In the 16th minute Curro Torres searched out Mista with a diagonal cross, only for the forward to be clumsily pulled down by Brazilian defender Juliano Belletti.

Norwegian referee Terje Hauge had no hesitation in pointing to the spot, and Mista made no mistake in putting away the penalty with his gifted left foot. Not surprisingly, the experienced home defence held firm - as it has done so often in La Liga this season - to take Valencia into their third European final in four years.

Meanwhile in the other semi-final, Drogba proved again why he is one of the hottest strikers in Europe as his brace against Newcastle blasted Marseille into the club's first UEFA Cup final since 1999, when they were beaten 3-0 in Moscow by Parma.

Newcastle struggled to create chances in an enthralling semi-final encounter and were outplayed for large periods despite battling bravely right to the final whistle. But on 18 minutes, the English side lost possession midway into the Marseille half and were punished by a lightening counter-attack that was completed with a world class finish from the home side's golden boy.

A through ball found Drogba streaking forward who then raced into the box, before a neat touch took him past Aaron Hughes and then slotted the ball inside Shay Givens near post for a truly memorable goal. As Newcastle pushed forward in search of an equaliser Drogba struck again with another deadly strike with eight minutes remaining. -dpa