Intertoto Cup: Keeper blunder blunts Villa
Peter Enckelman threw Aston Villa's Uefa Cup hopes into the melting pot as they drew 1-1 at Basle in the first leg of the Intertoto Cup final.
The young Finn, who produced two superb first-half saves, was left holding his head in his hands after gifting Basle an equaliser 16 minutes after skipper Merson had broken the deadlock on the hour mark in the first leg of this final at St Jakobspark.
It looked as if Merson had fired Villa to within 90 minutes of the Uefa Cup, sliding home a simple rebound after Basle keeper Pascal Zuberbuhler 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 letting slip a firm drive from substitute Carlos Varela, giving Christian Gimenez the simplest of tasks of tapping the ball in from six yards.
The first of Basle's chances came inside the opening two minutes, the Yakin brothers combining as a clever chip over Mark Delaney from Murat set up 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 onto a loose ball and driving in a powerful shot, only to be denied by a fine block.
In an otherwise frustrating opening 45 minutes for the home side, the closest they came to taking the lead was in the 12th minute when Cameroon's Jean-Michel Tchouga left Gareth Barry wanting before feeding a ball to Argentinian Gimenez for a low, curling shot which shaved Enckelman's right-hand post.
Otherwise Villa were commendable at the back, marshalled in particular by Turkey international Alpay, who won everything in the air.
With Basle, who had won five of their previous six Intertoto Cup matches, unable to make any headway they were often forced to backtrack to search for the openings, much to the frustration of their supporters.
Basle, the most expensively assembled side in Swiss football certainly lacked the cutting edge which had been displayed by Rennes during the semi-final.
Villa's opportunities, however, were rarer as they too lacked punch in attack, although they did have the clearest chance to break the deadlock in the first half.
After 15 minutes a Merson right-wing cross to the far post was knocked down by Dion Dublin for a surprised Mustapha Hadji inside the six-yard box, the ball hitting the Moroccan on the right leg and drifting agonisingly wide.
Following the golden gaffes by both keepers, they at least redeemed themselves in the closing 15 minutes as Zuberbuhler denied Dublin and Hadji, while the red-faced Enckelman thwarted Sebastien Barberis.
