Flood leveller saves Irish blushes in Cyprus heat

Cyprus U-21 1 Republic of Ireland U-21 1

Since opening up their UEFA U-21 Championship qualifying programme with a 3-0 victory over Cyprus in Kilkenny 13 months ago, it has been a campaign to forget for Ireland.

For Givens, with his side's qualification hopes long evaporated, it was a time to experiment and debuts were handed to Luton's Keith Keane and Marcos Painter of Birmingham.