Aston Villa's most celebrated villains, Juan Pablo Angel and David Ginola, became heroes last night by inspiring the club to victory in the Intertoto Cup final and a place in Europe.
Angel, signed for £9.5m sterling, finally started to repay on the investment, and unsettled Ginola wrapped up the victory with a run from the halfway line before firing home.
Paul Merson's goal in the drawn first leg in Switzerland meant a goalless draw would be sufficient to return Villa to mainstream European competition, but Merson's reward was a place on the bench.
The inclusion of Ginola in the starting line-up suggested Villa manager John Gregory wanted to put the game out of reach of the Swiss rather than rely on his team keeping a clean sheet.
Argentine striker Christian Gimenez put Basle in front when he brushed Villa's centre-back Alpay aside before pulling the ball back for Australian winger Scott Chipperfield to sidefoot the ball past the helpless Peter Schmeichel.
With seconds to go before the interval Darius Vassell levelled the tie following some inevitable trickery by Ginola.
Within seconds of the restart Vassell delivered a cross from the left that Angel headed on to the roof of the net. Nine minutes later Angel put Villa in front from a difficult angle following more fine approach work from Ginola.
Angel added his second 18 minutes from time to book Villa's place in Friday's UEFA Cup draw.
Ginola wrapped up the victory with a run from the halfway line that took him clear of the defence before firing home.
ASTON VILLA: Schmeichel; Delaney, Alpay, Barry, Staunton; Stone, Boateng, Hendrie, Ginola; Angel, Vassell.
BASLE: Zuberbuehler; Quennox, Kreuzer, M Yakin, Crauero; Varela, H Yakin, Huggell, Chipperfield; Kaumantarakis, Gimenez.
Referee: C Bo Larsen.
Aston Villa win 5-2 on aggregate.
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