Enckelman error hurts Villa hopes of progress

Basle 1 Aston Villa 1

Peter Enckelman left Aston Villa's hopes of qualifying for the Uefa Cup in the balance after Paul Merson had seemingly set the club on their way to Intertoto Cup success here last night.

Enckelman was unsurprisingly again named as Villa's goalkeeper because the veteran Peter Schmeichel is still carrying a calf injury sustained on his debut three weeks ago.

The young Finn, who produced two superb first-half saves, was left holding his head in his hands, however, after gifting Basle an equaliser 16 minutes after Merson, the Villa captain, had broken the deadlock on the hour in the first leg of this final-round tie.

It looked as if Merson had fired Villa to within 90 minutes of a potentially lucrative run in this season's Uefa Cup, sliding home a simple rebound after the Basle keeper Pascal Zuberbühler had failed to hold a cross-shot from Hassan Kachloul.

Villa were cruising at that stage, but a mirror image of their goal followed as this time it was Enckelman who let slip a firm drive from the substitute Carlos Varela, giving Christian Gimenez the simplest of tasks to tap the ball in from six yards.

John Gregory's side can yet draw some comfort from the fact that they face the return at Villa Park in a fortnight's time on level terms, having been beaten 2-1 in their previous away matches by the Croatian side Slaven Belupo and Rennes of France.

Basle, the most expensively assembled side in Swiss football, are coached by the former Tottenham manager Christian Gross, but, apart from two good first-half chances, they rarely looked threatening.

The first of Basle's openings came inside the opening two minutes. A clever chip over Mark Delaney from Murat Yakin set up his brother, Hakan, for a left-foot drive from the edge of the area which Enckelman smothered low to his left. It was Hakan who again tested Enckelman, this time with less than two minutes remaining in the first half, the Turkish striker latching on to a loose ball and driving in a powerful shot, only to be denied by a fine block.

Basle: Zuberbühler; Quennoz, Kreuzer, Tchouga, Hakan Yakin, Gimenez, Murat Yakin, Aziawonou, Cantaluppi, Ergic, Chipperfield. Substitutes: Huggel, Varela, Tum, Barberis, Knez, Degn, Crevoisier (gk).

Aston Villa: Enckelman; Delaney, Wright, Barry, Alpay Ozalan, Boateng, Kachloul, Dublin, Merson, Hendrie, Hadji. Substitutes: Stone, Vassell, Ginola, Angel, Samuel, Staunton, Myhill (gk).

Referee: Eric Romain (Belgium).