Superb Wales miss out after Villa Park thriller

England survived an almighty scare at Villa Park before finally recording a 5-4 aggregate victory which seals a place in next summer's eight-team tournament in Sweden.

Tom Huddlestone's 13th-minute goal put Stuart Pearce's men in the ascendancy but Aaron Ramsey inspired a superb comeback, levelling himself on 24 minutes before setting up Simon Church for another four minutes later.

Wales were only pegged back due to Sam Vokes' unlucky own goal (35) and the visitors took command once Huddlestone was sent off midway through the second period.

However, despite Ramsey's best efforts they got no nearer than a Vokes effort which bounced back off a post five minutes from time, allowing England's young Three Lions to scramble to Scandinavia.

After establishing a 3-2 first-leg lead in Cardiff on Friday, England had been expected to stroll into the finals, where they reached the semi-finals two years ago before losing to hosts Holland in a dramatic penalty shoot-out.

That belief only intensified when Huddlestone's well-struck free-kick caught Owain Fon Williams out of position.

The Wales goalkeeper desperately tried to salvage the situation but failed, leaving the hosts two goals ahead on aggregate and in control of the tie as well as the match.

As the visitors had barely been out of their own half at that stage, a procession seemed inevitable.

Yet Bryan Flynn's men proved last week they were a handful and so it proved again, even with seven men on seniors duty in Germany.

One who escaped John Toshack's attention was Ramsey. Clearly though, Ramsey is a player of some promise.

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson thinks so, as does his Arsenal counterpart Arsene Wenger, who won the battle to sign him from Cardiff last season.

The 17-year-old's growing influence came to glorious fruition midway through the half when Andy King and Church combined to set him clear.

Showing all the confidence of a player twice his age, Ramsey let fly from 20 yards and gave Joe Hart no chance as his shot rasped into the top corner.

Ramsey was not finished. When Lee Cattermole gave away possession with a wayward pass, the teenager was onto it in a flash.

He spotted Church's run quickly, slipped a perfect pass beyond Steven Taylor and the Reading striker did the rest.

Suddenly a decent-sized Welsh contingent were believing the impossible.

Not even an unfortunate own goal by Vokes 10 minutes before the break brought them completely down to earth as Wales would have needed a goal whether England had levelled or not.

Having introduced Fabrice Muamba after half an hour, a clearly unimpressed Pearce brought on Fraizer Campbell for local boy Gabriel Agbonlahor at half-time.

The changes helped stabilise the home side and once again they appeared in control.

Their air of superiority disappeared midway through the second period though as Huddlestone stretched to win a meaty 66th-minute challenge with Darcy Blake.

Both men went in with studs showing but Dutch referee Kevin Blom felt the Tottenham midfielder had overstepped the mark and promptly sent him off.

It was a setback England could have done without as, just as they had done in the first half, Wales were starting to get on top again.

Hart was becoming a key man, not so much with the saves he was making but the confidence he had, which spread to the players immediately in front of him.

It was hard not to be impressed by Ramsey, who got on the ball as often as he could, usually keeping it simple but occasionally producing moments of pure class.

Not surprisingly, he was involved in the move which saw Wales come so close to squaring the tie, as he played a pass to Vokes.

Having put the ball into the same net on England's behalf earlier, Vokes turned sharply and had another go - but despite beating Hart, his effort rebounded off the woodwork and Wales were forced to admit defeat soon after.

Afterwards England coach Stuart Pearce admitted he wanted to take Theo Walcott to next year's finals.

The Arsenal forward has become an established member of Fabio Capello's senior squad but Pearce would like it if he dropped back down the Under-21s.

When asked if he hoped to take Walcott, Pearce said: "Of course. Theo has played seven matches in getting us here.

"But I want to talk about the collective of everybody who has played for the Under-21s.

"They have got a fantastic collective between themselves."

Pearce admitted it had been a tense time and was relieved to have qualified.

"We're through," continued the former England defender. "We knew it was going to be two really tough games.

"I think we showed with the spirit and the courage the English team have got why Wales did not want to play us and why we didn't want to play Wales.

"I think it's a shame we are not both going."

Welsh counterpart Brian Flynn believed his side did not get their reward but looked positively to the future.

"There were two great games against quality opposition," he said.

"To be involved at this level, the experience they gained was enormous.

"They deserved to win the game but it wasn't to be.

"When teams go down to 10 men in these sort of games they tend to put the extra effort in and that is what England did."