Galway 1-10 Sligo 1-7: Champions Galway were pushed all the way at Pearse Stadium by a spirited Sligo side before advancing to a final showdown with Mayo. Sligo will be annoyed that they did not make better use of their second-half possession, especially after Andrew McMunn had a ninth-minute penalty superbly saved by Eoin Costelloe.

Galway led by 0-7 to 0-3 at half-time and extended their lead after the restart with a Owen Concannon point. But Sligo hit back to narrow the gap to 0-8 to 0-7 after 52 minutes. Despite a late Sligo rally, Galway held on thanks to points from Concannon and a goal from John Lawless.

GALWAY: E Costelloe; M O'Neill, J Keaveney, K O'Connor; C Leyden, T Crowe, J Tierney; G O'Donnell, G Bradshaw (0-2); C Kenny (0-1), M Gottsche (0-1), D Hogan; O Concannon (0-5, one free), E Hoare (0-1), L Lynch. Subs: J Keane for O'Donnell (40 mins), S Kavanagh for Kenny (41 mins), J Lawless (1-0) for Hogan (62 mins), D Neary for Lynch (inj, 63 mins).

SLIGO: J Farrell; C O'Grady, B Murphy, N Ewing; D McDonagh, PJ Boyd, D Rooney (0-1); A McIntyre, S Gilmartin; S Stenson (0-2), B Neary, K Raymond (0-1); F Quinn (0-2, one free), A McMunn, D Kelly (0-1). Subs: P Cawley for Neary (inj, 25 mins), J Marren (1-0) for McMunn (35 mins), P McTiernan for Gilmartin (64 mins), D O'Boyle for Raymond (67 mins).

Referee: D Corcoran (Mayo).