O'Reilly saves leave George to slot title sealer

It may have taken the Irish 77 years to pick up a first major international football trophy but 79 days after the under-16s won their European Championship title in Scotland, the under-18s showed that we're really getting the hang of it.

Cheered on by a couple of thousand countrymen at the New Zenon stadium in Larnaca, and watched from the sidelines by coaches Brian Kerr and Noel O'Reilly, the Irish team survived the warmest night of this championship to triumph over the toughest opponents they had met over the past week.

Earlier, Robbie Keane engineered a goal that Alan Quinn put away in the 71st minute. It looked likely to decide the title but Germany dug deep to score the equaliser and, after a cautious spell of extra time, the contest was decided by a penalty shootout.

Alex O'Reilly made sure the Germans were under the greater pressure during the shootout by saving the opening strike from Andreas Voss. Tobias Schaper then struck the post with Germany's second and, though Keane missed, solid strikes from Ryan Casey, Paul Donnolly and Barry Quinn left Liam George in a position to wrap it all up.

And that's just what the 19year-old did, rounding off a wonderful night by beating Timo Hildebrand with a firmly struck shot to his right that ensured the Republic of Ireland would return to Dublin this evening with the European Youths' Championship trophy.

As they had against the English last week, the Irish improved as the game went on. After watching his side come off second best during the first half, Alan Quinn once again went some way to turning Ireland's fortunes after coming on at the break, adding a creativity in midfield that had been lacking.

It was around the box that the Clondalkin teenager proved most valuable, though. In the second leg of the qualification play-off against Greece he had started a move deep in midfield and then arrived in the nick of time to finish. He was at it again last night, feeding George out on the right 19 minutes from time, drifting forward as Keane beat Thomas Lechner and Sebastian Deisler and then pouncing as Keane held off Marcel Rapp to set up his team-mate for the goal from the edge of the six-yard box.

The Irish went on to dominate the remainder of normal time and George, Keane and Richie Partridge all came close to extending the lead.

With just 10 seconds of injury time remaining, though, Rainer Bonhof's team struck back when Voss pushed Lechner clear down the left side of the box and three defenders hesitated in the centre just as Andreas Gensler picked his spot from the same place as Quinn.

It was a cruel blow for an Irish side that had done so well to keep their opponents out, especially early on when the Germans had dominated.

Christian Timm and Deisler, identified during the group stages as Germany's danger men, caused Kerr's side all sorts of problems as they pushed forward out of midfield. Had it not been for some poor finishing, most notably from Sebastian Kehl, who twice should have found the net from good positions well inside the box, the game could have been all but wrapped up inside the first 40 minutes.

Most of the German chances came from quick breaks, when they piled men forward at speed, but their size and strength was difficult to cope with at set pieces as well. Some frantic defending was needed when they got their third corner of the match with a little less than a half an hour played. Thorsten Schramm went close to putting his side in front first with a back flick that Ger Crossley cleared off the line and then with a close-range follow-up that forced centre-half Jason Gavin into another goal-line clearance.

By then, it was starting to look a little desperate, with Ireland struggling to win decent possession in the opposition's half. George was working as hard as ever but there was little opportunity for him to create anything as the Irish midfield found themselves pinned back deep, leaving the Luton striker and Keane looking decidedly isolated up front.

Still, the Wolves star might have found the net shortly before the break when a wonderful Partridge ball in low from the left found its target lurking by the penalty spot. The Dubliner appeared to do the tricky bit, selling his marker the dummy and then cutting inside for the shot, but he got badly underneath the ball as he made contact and blasted well over from eight yards out.

Republic Of Ireland: O'Reilly (West Ham); Heary (Huddersfield), Dunne (Everton), Gavin (Middlesbrough), Doyle (St Patrick's Athletic); Crossley (Celtic), B Quinn (Coventry), McPhail (Leeds), Partridge (Liverpool); George (Luton), Keane (Wolves). SUBS: A Quinn (Sheffield Wednesday) for Crossley (half-time), Donnolly (Leeds) for McPhail (68 mins), Casey (Leeds) for Partridge (96).

Germany: Hildebrand (VfB Stuttgart); Ernst (Hannover 96); Schramm (MSV Duisberg), Lech ner (Kaiserslautern), Rapp (Karlsruher SC); Gensler (Bayer 04 Leverkusen), Deisler (Borussia M'gladbach), Voss (Bayer 04 Leverkusen), Kehl (Hannover 96); Kern (FC Erzgebirge Aue), Timm (Borussia Dortmund). SUBS: Maj unke (VfB Stuttgart) for Kern (82 mins), Schaper (Borussia Dortmund) for Deisler (105 mins). Referee: Eric Romain (Belgium).

In the play-off for third place, Croatia repeated the success of their senior team in the World cup by beating Portugal 5-4 on penalties.