Last-gasp Keane earns Irish draw at 10-man Italy

Robbie Keane made a successful return to Italy as his close range strike three minutes from time earned Ireland a 1-1 draw against 10-man defending champions Italy in a World Cup qualifier here Wednesday.

Former Inter Milan striker Keane’s last gasp equaliser rewarded the Irish for a gutsy performance that was rich in endeavour.

Vincenzo Iaquinta’s 11th-minute goal looked to have given Italy an unlikely win after they had to play virtually the entire match with a numerical disadvantage.

The draw left Italy top of Group Eight but Ireland will be feeling confident as they pegged the gap to the world champions at two points.

It could have been worse for Italy as Giampaolo Pazzini, making his first start for the national team, became the quickest player to be sent off in an Italy shirt.

Having scored on his debut as a substitute in Montenegro on Saturday he quickly went from hero to villain here.

Pazzini lived up to his name — it means crazy little one in Italian — on four minutes when he was red-carded for catching Manchester United’s John O’Shea with a flailing arm in an aerial challenge.

There appeared to be nothing malicious in the Sampdoria forward’s challenge but with O’Shea left bloodied referee Wolfgang Stark brandished the red card.

Italy quickly made their greater quality pay after some poor defending down Ireland’s right.

Andrea Pirlo pinged a ball down the inside left channel for the overlapping Lyon fullback Fabio Grosso with both Paul McShane and Andrew Keogh caught ball-watching.

Grosso’s centre then went through another Irish defender’s legs and found Iaquinta whose clever flick opened the scoring.

Ireland had plenty of the ball thereafter with Italy content to sit back and soak up pressure while looking to counter at pace.

The visitors had a decent penalty shout when Stephen Hunt’s bustling run into the box was ended by a robust Giorgio Chiellini challenge but the referee waved play-on.

Ireland’s Italian coach Giovanni Trapattoni made an early change on 21 minutes throwing on Hull forward Caleb Folan for Keogh, with captain Robbie Keane dropping in behind the front two.

Even so Italy came closest to scoring again as Grosso galloped free and crossed for Simone Pepe to poke the ball into the side-netting.

Ireland finally showed some attacking threat on 40 minutes but Buffon was equal to Hunt’s fierce strike.

Ireland toiled throughout the second half without getting close to scoring until five minutes from time when Kevin Kilbane forced Buffon into another acrobatic save.

Just two minutes after that a long ball forward fell kindly to Keane in the box and the Tottenham forward buried his shot.

Ireland threw everything at Italy in the last few minutes and almost scored again as late panic reigned in Italy’s box but with the ball bobbling around the six-yard line no Irish foot could prod it home.