Ireland and Italy left to do battle

It was blink and you'll miss something stuff at Finspang last night, with the Irish youths turning in one of their more bizarre performances against a Georgian side that twice looked set to beat the reigning European champions.

That they didn't was in no small part down to the doggedness of a team that has battled its way out of some tough spots over their time together. But there was still no hiding the disappointment as they wandered towards the dressing-room at the end.

Ultimately, the Georgians knew they would pay more dearly for the draw for, combined with the day's other six-goal stalemate between Italy and Spain, this result means that the final is now out of their reach, while only a win for them over Spain and defeat for Ireland tomorrow can get them into the third place play-off.

For Brian Kerr's side it's more simple: they have to beat Italy if they are to stay in the hunt for another European title.

But even a win tomorrow might have left them looking for favours elsewhere had they not twice come from behind to salvage a point from a game they had briefly set to stroll through when they took the lead through Graham Barrett within four minutes.

The advantage was chucked away again within a matter of seconds. A Georgian cross was cleared by Jason Gavin only as far as man of the match Zurab Menteshashvili, whose volley was well hit - even if it did benefit from a couple of deflections en route to the net.

The quick exchange set the tone for a contest which was, from the outset, a far more open affair than the encounter with Spain on Monday. Play swung with almost the regularity of a pendulum from one end of the pitch to the other.

As they did in their opening match, the Irish needlessly gave away too much possession in midfield, but it was up front that a point was salvaged, and at the back that two more were allowed to slip away.

The Irish frontline of Richie Partridge, Barrett and especially Gary Doherty caused their opponents endless difficulties, and had their defenders not tugged and dragged at the big Luton striker from beginning to end it's difficult to see how they would have prevented him from scoring another couple.

Equally, though, Delaney might have spent some more time picking the ball out of his net, for things were less than secure around his area. Certainly had Standard Liege's injured Lasha Dzhakobia - Georgia's best player and their leading scorer from the qualifiers - been knocking around it things might have become really nasty for the unusually vulnerable Irish central defence.

As it was, everybody stood far enough off Valerian Gagua 25 yards out in the 56th minute to give him the shooting chance he required to edge his side in front.

He did it again three minutes for time. This time Gavin lost the ball out on the right and Gagua got on the end of a quick ball down the line before slipping the ball low across the goal and into the right-hand corner from the edge of the area.

On the first occasion, the Irish had to wait a quarter of an hour before Doherty set up Trevor Fitzpatrick's headed equaliser. But the third left little room for the patient approach, and so, straight from the kick-off, Ger Crossley played it wide to Peter Murphy whose angled ball to just inside the area was met by the Irish captain in full flight.

It was a suitably unpredictable ending to such a crazy game, but an important final twist for an Irish side that is still very much in the championship race.

Fifty miles away, back in the tournament base of Linkoping, their rivals for a place in the final were having to save their skins in fairly similar fashion with a 90th minute equaliser against Spain, who are now out of the running.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Delaney (Everton); O'Halloran (Cork City), Gavin (Middlesbrough), Clarke (Stoke City), Murphy (Blackburn Rovers); Healy (Celtic), Miller (Celtic), Crossley (Unattached), Partridge (Liverpool); Doherty (Luton Town), Barrett (Arsenal). Sub: Fitzpatrick (Southend Utd) for Barrett (69 mins).

GEORGIA: Batiashvili; Abrammidze, Khizaneishvili, Khizanishvili, Sajaia; Menteshashvili, Digmelashvili, Gagua, Gvelesiani; Mikadze, Imedadze. Subs: Nozadze for Mikadze (76 mins), Devidze for Gvelesiani (78 mins), Korgalidze for Imedadze (84 mins).

Referee: L Pucek (Czech Republic).