West Ham United's Kieran Sadlier helped Republic of Ireland to keep their UEFA European U19 Championship hopes alive with a dramatic 2-2 Elite Round Group 2 draw with Slovakia.
Sadlier scored in Ireland's opening match against Switzerland, which also ended 2-2, but the young Boys in Green looked on course to lose out against the Slovaks when Manchester City's Albert Rusnak put them 2-1 up in the 90th minute. However, Paul Doolin's men showed great spirit to snatch a 92nd-minute equaliser through Leicester City's Steven Smith at FK Srem in Jakovo, Serbia.
Earlier, Sadlier had sent a long-range volley wide before Manchester United forward Sam Byrne put Ireland in front in the 24th minute when he turned home a cross from Reading's Sean Long. Sadlier missed another chance when he headed a cross from Tottenham Hotspur's Kenneth McEvoy narrowly wide.
Slovakia equalised on 54 minutes through FC Tatran Presov's Matus Marcin before the late drama. A second consecutive draw means the Irish will qualify for the finals in Lithuania this summer if they beat the Serbs in Jakovo on Tuesday and Switzerland lose to Slovakia in Belgrade on the same day.
Sadlier's West Ham club-mate Sean Maguire was again an unused substitute.
Elsewhere, first-team midfielder Mohamed Diame captained Senegal to a 1-1 FIFA World Cup African Group J qualifying draw with Angola in Luanda on Saturday. Diame played the full 90 minutes as Newcastle United's Papiss Cisse opened the scoring for Senegal, before FC Vaduz player Afonso Guilherme equalised for Angola.
The result leaves Senegal top of the table after four matches out of six. Diame and his national team-mates travel to bottom side Liberia next Saturday. The ten African group winners will play five two-legged matches to determine who goes through to Brazil 2014.