U21: Gnonto rescues Italy in Republic of Ireland

Wilfried Gnonto transformed a penalty and noticed his final gasp header deflected in to present Italy a vital 2-2 draw within the Republic of Eire, holding them high of the European Underneath-21 Championship qualifier group.

The Azzurrini had not conceded a single objective within the 4 qualifiers to date, however confirmed sluggish marking in Cork and solely scraped a degree with the final kick of the sport.

Willy Gnonto got here sliding on to a Prati ball excessive, turning it simply broad, however the Republic of Eire opened the scoring with their first real try.

Sinclair Armstrong pulled again from the by-line and Sam Curtis virtually sat on the ball slightly than faucet in on the again publish undisturbed, however Killian Phillips was additionally unmarked and able to bundle over the road from six yards.

Anselmo Garcia MacNulty’s header flashed broad from a free kick, however Italy obtained a penalty for Mohammed Lawal’s dealing with offence on a Gnonto cross-shot. The Leeds United man took the spot-kick himself to equalise.

The hosts restored their benefit on the daybreak of the second half, as a Sean Grehan cross appeared to shock everybody, bounce off the far publish and was tapped in on the rebound by Armstrong. Sebastian Desplanches appeared to imagine it might go broad.

Luca Koleosho got here on and instantly put an amazing cross on the boot of Giovanni Fabbian, who fired straight on the goalkeeper.

Armstrong additionally threatened a 3rd for Eire, denied this time by Desplanches one-on-one, however Italy had an enormous double alternative within the last minutes.

Gnonto’s daisy-cutter from the sting of the world bounced off the upright and Mattia Zanotti thought he had equalised on the rebound, just for Joshua Keeley to only about cease the ball fully crossing the road.

Italy managed to equalise with a chaotic transfer and the final kick of the sport. Koleosho’s ball was floated into the field, Edoardo Bove’s shot was deflected into the trail of Gnonto, whose header on the again publish ricocheted in off Matthew Healy.

It means Italy retain high spot on 11 factors, adopted by the Republic of Eire on 10, Norway 9, Latvia 7, Turkey 6 and San Marino 0.

Rep Eire 2-2 Italy

Phillips 31 (RI), Gnonto pen 45, 96 (I), Armstrong 48 (RI)

Republic of Eire: Keeley; Grehan, Lawal, Garcia MacNulty; Curtis, Healy, Adeeko, Roughan (Adaramola 91); Phillips; Armstrong (Kenny 82), Emakhu (Murphy 93)

Italy: Desplanches; Zanotti, Coppola, Pirola, Calafiori (Turricchia 83); Bove, Prati, N’Dour (Koleosho 56); Fabbian (Ambrosino 76); Esposito (Casadei 46), Gnonto

Ref: Tschudi (SUI)