Peter Enckelman threw Aston Villa's UEFA Cup hopes into the melting pot after Paul Merson had seemingly set the club on their way to Intertoto Cup victory.

Enckelman was again named as Villa's goalkeeper given Peter Schmeichel is still carrying a calf injury. But the young Finn, who produced two superb first-half saves, was left holding his head 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 a potentially lucrative run in this season's 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, allowing Christian Gimenez to tap the ball in from six yards.

But Villa should still make it through to the draw for the first round of the UEFA Cup later this month as Basle barely posed a threat throughout the majority of the 90 minutes in front of 25,879 fans in a superb stadium.