Ireland squeeze past San Marino
Ireland were five seconds away from one of the worst results in their history
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Wednesday, 07, Feb 2007 10:12
A dramatic last-gasp strike from Stephen Ireland gave the Republic of Ireland a 2-1 win over San Marino in their Euro 2008 qualifier.
The Manchester City midfielder scrambled the ball across the line with just five seconds remaining to save Ireland's blushes.
Kevin Kilbane's goal at the start of the second half had been cancelled out by Manuel Marani's strike four minutes from time.
A draw would have ended the hosts' run of 37 straight defeats in qualifying matches and would not have been entirely undeserved as Steve Staunton's side struggled to break down the home defence.
The away side's chances did not come as easily as they may have hoped, although Robbie Keane fired over on 34 minutes before Ireland wasted two glorious chances to open the scoring on the stroke of half time.
First, Richard Dunne fired his header over the bar from Damien Duff's pinpoint cross.
Then, Kilbane struck his effort agonisingly wide of the post from the edge of the area.
Four minutes into the second half, the away side took the lead when Ireland nodded on Steve Finnan's right-wing cross for Kilbane to fire his header into the corner.
Ireland continued to bombard the hosts' penalty area, led by Newcastle winger Duff.
But a comical blunder in the visitors' defence gave San Marino their first goal in qualifying this season.
A mix-up between goalkeeper Wayne Henderson and Richard Dunne allowed Marani to poke home into an empty net on 86 minutes.
But in the fourth minute of stoppage time Staunton's prayers were answered when midfielder Ireland stabbed the ball into the net for a dramatic late winner.
The result sees Ireland climb to third in group D behind Germany and the Czech Republic.