VILLA END TOUR OF SWEDEN WITH SIX-GOAL THRILLER

By Ryan Ghee
July 30 2005

Aston Villa completed their tour of Sweden with a hard-fought draw against a strong GAIS side. Despite being two goals up on the hour mark, Aston Villa had to rely on a late Ridgewell equaliser to earn them a share of the spoils.

Aston Villa started the match brightly with Angel, Ridgewell and Berger all going close in the opening 10 minutes. After 14 minutes, Phillips was fouled in the box by GAIS's Ostberg but Gareth Barry saw his resulting penalty brilliantly saved by Jankulovski.
Five minutes after the penalty incident, Juan Pablo Angel managed to break the deadlock. He raced on to Solano's through ball and planted the ball into the top corner of the net after beating two of the opposing defenders. Angel came close to adding a second before the interval but his curling effort failed to find the target.
At half-time O'Leary made only one change with Luke Moore replacing Angel. GAIS however,changed their whole team at half-time with eleven changes to the starting line-up.
After just 10 minutes of the second half, Villa doubled their lead when Vennberg deflected Ridgewell's header into his own net.
GAIS's unlikely turn-around started to take shape on the hour mark. Nobby Solano conceded a soft penalty and Blomqvist converted to get GAIS back into the match. 5 minutes later, GAIS were on level terms when Sorensen allowed Blomqvist's weak effort to squirm under his body and only seconds later, Figueiredo added a third to give GAIS a shock lead.
The home side very nearly added a fourth when Blomqvist was denied his hat-trick thanks to a stunning save from Thomas Sorensen.
Villa battled to get back on level terms and with just 7 minutes remaining they were rewarded when Ridgewell rose above his marker to power a header into the back of the net.
In the final moments, both De La Cruz and Phillips came close for Villa but nobody could find a winner.