UEFA under-21 championship - Rep of Ireland 1 Switzerland 1:OWEN GARVAN grabbed a vital equaliser four minutes into injury-time of an absorbing Uefa Championships meeting at the RSC last night.
The Ipswich midfielder fired home brilliantly from 12 yards after finishing off excellent work by Keith Treacy and Alan Judge.
The result sealed a third successive draw for the Irish, but it was no less than they deserved after falling behind to substitute Fabien Frei’s 58th-minute opener.
Unlike in their draws against Georgia and Estonia in recent weeks, the Irish left the pitch happy to have secured at least a point.
On previous occasions poor finishing had left them unhappy at ending up with just the minimum reward for their efforts. The outcome was just last night.
Swiss goalkeeper Yann Sommer was the first to be tested in the second minute when he dived to parry a Cillian Sheridan strike.
A free-kick fired in by Daniel Pavlovic in the seventh minute tested Irish goalkeeper Shane Redmond, who held on comfortably.
Sheridan came close to intercepting a poor back-pass by Gaetano Berardi four minutes later. Sommer half-cleared as far as James McCarthy but his long-range effort drifted wide.
Redmond produced a remarkable stop in the 17th minute to keep out a close header from Mario Gavranovic following a free-kick swung over by Pavlovic.
Switzerland thought they had scored in the 22nd minute, but Alessandro Ciarocchi’s strike was cancelled out for handball and he was booked for dissent.
Replays suggested the officials had been incorrect.
Frei opened the scoring after tapping home from close range from a Ciarocchi cut-back after a strike by Valentin Stocker struck the base of Redmond’s right post.
Less than a minute later Alan Judge was denied an equaliser when Sommer pushed his powerful strike wide.
When the Irish hearts began to sink after a couple of half-chances appeared to elude them in injury-time, Garvan arrived at the right time to secure a share of the spoils.
Switzerland remain top of Group Two with 10 points, while the Irish have three points from their opening four fixtures.
REP OF IRELAND:Redmond; Coleman, Hughton, Conneely, Morris, Davies, Judge, Garvan, Sheridan, McCarthy, O'Shea. Subs: Treacy for O'Shea, Clifford for Davies (both 59 mins); Collins for Conneely (83 mins).
SWITZERLAND:Sommer; Berardi, Rossini, Affolter, Koch, F Feltscher, Hochstrasser, Pavlovic, Stocker, Ciarocchi, Gavranovic. Subs: Frei for Gavranovic (46 mins); Nikci for Stocker (68 mins); R Feltscher for F Feltscher (80 mins).
Referee:A Perez Burrull (Spain)
