Late Garvan strike keeps Irish hopes alive

Republic of Ireland Under-21 1 Switzerland Under-21 1

Skipper Owen Garvan got the Republic of Ireland out of jail with an injury-time equaliser to keep their European Under-21s Championship qualifying campaign alive.

The Ipswich midfielder struck three minutes into added time at the end of the game to cancel out substitute Fabian Frei’s 57th-minute opener as the Group Two leaders were denied victory in Waterford.

The Republic started brightly and went close within two minutes of kick-off when Plymouth striker Cillian Sheridan tested Swiss keeper Yann Sommer with a fiercely-struck long-range effort.

James McCarthy fired just wide from distance nine minutes later after Sommer had been forced to rush from his line to intercept a woefully underhit back-pass before Sheridan could get there, and the keeper was back in action seven minutes from the break to claim Jay O’Shea’s effort at his near post.

However, Ireland keeper Shane Redmond, who had earlier had to produce a fine save to keep out a Mario Gavranovic header, was rescued by the assistant referee with 21 minutes gone when striker Alessandro Ciarocchi shot home from Frank Fletscher’s long pass, only to be penalised for handball.

Fletscher skied wastefully over 11 minutes after half-time, but the visitors went ahead seconds later when, after Valentin Stocker’s shot had come back off the post, Ciarocchi’s follow-up was blocked by Seamus Conneely and Frei tapped home the rebound.

Alan Judge and Sheridan both forced fine saves from Sommer and Judge flashed an 87th-minute piledriver across the face of goal in a frenetic finale, but Garvan rescued a point at the death with a 93rd-minute equaliser to give the home side some reward for their efforts.