Ernesto Valverde has praised Valencia for their "dangerous" play, but insists that Barcelona deserved their 3-0 aggregate victory in the Copa del Rey semi-final.

A first goal for the club from Philippe Coutinho and an Ivan Rakitic strike late on at the Mestalla got the job done for Barca, who already held a slender advantage from the first leg.

The Catalan giants remain on course for a record-equalling fourth Copa del Rey crown in a row, and Valverde was particularly delighted to make it through to his first final as manager of the famous club.

"Barca are used to reaching and playing the finals. In my case, not so much," he is quoted as saying by Marca. "I feel very happy as it is the fifth consecutive final that the players of this team are going to play, something very complicated to repeat and repeat.

"We thought it would be very difficult and that's how it was, but we're going home with the final ticket in our pocket. We faced a team who were very motivated with a city behind them. In the first leg, Valencia didn't let us score many, in the second we have dominated despite them having good chances, but we deserved to progress.

"We dominated the first game but weren't clinical, today they threatened on the counter, we played our cards. I would have preferred to suffer a lot less and have everything in front of us before, Valencia were very dangerous on the counter and created problems with good players."

Barcelona will face Sevilla in May's final following Los Rojiblancos' 3-1 aggregate win over Leganes in the other final-four clash.