ITALY 1 REPUBLIC OF IRELAND 1:BERTIE AHERN was at last night's remarkable World Cup qualifier in Bari as a guest of the FAI and as the former taoiseach left the San Nicola Stadium, on the outskirts of town by a motorway, he must have found himself wondering just what might have been.

Many of the 5,000 Irish supporters present probably left feeling the same way for having seen their side avoid defeat courtesy of Robbie Keane’s first goal on an international stage this big in more than six years, they watched the World Champions hang on desperately for a point themselves in the frantic finale.

With the Italians down to 10 men from early and the Irish relentlessly looking to break them down over the course of an exciting second-half, Keane had pounced three minutes from time to equalise Vincenzo Iaquinta’s first-half strike with a low half volley after Caleb Folan had done well to nod down Shay Given’s long ball forward.

However, interestingly, after the game Noel Hunt claimed he had scored the vital goal.

Having held on with trademark skill and determination, conceding much ground but few chances, the Italians looked devastated.

But as it turned out they were lucky to get away even with their draw as Noel Hunt and Keane again were involved in late attempts to snatch the victory.

The air of panic amongst Marcello Lippi’s men was unmistakable as injury-time slipped past and the locals booed from the stands at the final whistle, while the Irish good-naturedly jeered them out of the stadium then stayed a while to sing.

It was an astonishing end to a compelling night of action in a city where the Italians had never previously dropped points.

The sense had always been that Ireland would need a stroke of luck if they were going to be in with a serious shout of upsetting their hosts but few can have imagined it would arrive so quickly.

The game was just two minutes old when the Irish suddenly found themselves a man up.

Giampaolo Pazzini was the man to walk as German referee Wolfgang Stark had no hesitation about producing a red card following the Sampdoria’s striker collision with John O’Shea under a high ball. The 24 year-old went in for the ball with his right arm outstretched but there appeared to be no deliberate attempt to injure the defender and players have stayed on after doing more, particularly, one imagines, when they were Italian and playing for the national team in front of a potentially tetchy home crowd.

The hosts did little to reorganise after the loss. Iaquinta stayed up front, receiving support from Simone Pepe and Matteo Brighi when Italy had the ball and chasing about after defenders for most of the time they didn’t.

The visitors adjusted to cope with the temporary loss of O’Shea who, with blood streaming down his face, needed prolonged attention on the sidelines.

He was barely back on when Italy suddenly took the lead. Not for the last time in the half, Andrea Pirlo was the initial source of Irish discomfort but it was quickly compounded when his ball down the left of the box found Fabio Grosso providing an overlap. The full back’s low pull back slipped through the legs of Paul McShane and as O’Shea looked momentarily lost, Iaquinta side-footed home from five yards.

The Irish seemed stunned for a spell for while Kevin Doyle sent a wild shot over and Stephen Hunt chanced his arm with a penalty appeal, the Italian back four were rarely even pushed to the margins of their comfort zone at this stage.

From the sidelines, Trapattoni, revered in these parts for his guile and criticised in Ireland for his reluctance to alter the shape of a game under way, decided to act.

With less than a quarter of the match played, Andy Keogh was replaced by Folan who moved to partner Doyle in the Irish attack with Keane’s floating apparently given a sort of a sort of official endorsement.

The immediate fear was that McShane would be left hopelessly exposed down Ireland’s right flank but, to be fair, the threat rarely arose. Instead, the right back profited from Grosso’s tendency to tuck in very tight when the visitors had the ball and there were a few occasions when the Sunderland player was handed the opportunity by his team-mates in central midfielders to do some real damage.

Unfortunately, he struggled to capitalise on the situation and when Ireland did work the ball into the area they occasionally came up against what must have seemed a new and rather novel problem: players almost falling over each other as they sought to carve out space for a shot.

Long, high balls were regularly used in place of calmer approach work and before the break, the tactic almost paid off with Hunt getting on to a free-kick by Given and nudging the ball on once before striking a powerful left- footed shot that forced Gianluigi Buffon into a superb save.

When Ireland did move the ball about between them they did so with more composure than they had done against the Bulgarians but in the final third of the pitch they weren’t quite clinical enough to create good chances.

The Italians had a hand in that and Fabio Cannavaro showed moments of mastery under pressure. For the most part, though, Italy’s back four had a busy second-half dealing with Irish attempts to get the ball into the danger zone, usually by scrambling it behind or shielding it out of play.

Darron Gibson, then Noel Hunt, got run-outs as Trapattoni sought to exert ever more pressure and despite Lippi having attempted to tighten things up by replacing Pirlo with the more defensive Angelo Palombo, the visitors continued to look threatening.

Before Keane struck, Andrea Dossena very nearly nicked a second for the hosts on the break but he failed to make the required contact with Iaquinta’s cross. Within seconds the full cost of that failed attempt to kill off Irish hopes became apparent.

ITALY:Buffon (Juventus); Zambrotta (Milan), Cannavaro (Real Madrid), Chiellini (Juventus), Grosso (Olympique Lyonnais); Pepe (Udinese), De Rossi (Roma), Pirlo (Milan), Brighi (Roma); Pazzini (Sampdoria), Iaquinta (Juventus). Subs: Palombo (Sampdoria) for Pirlo (half-time), Dossena (Liverpool) for Pepe (55 mins), Quagliarella (Udinese) for Iaquinta (89 Mins).

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND:Given (Manchester City); McShane (Sunderland), Dunne (Manchester City), O'Shea (Manchester Utd), Kilbane (Hull City); Keogh (Wolves), Whelan (Stoke City), Andrews (Blackburn Rovers), S Hunt (Reading); Keane (Tottenham), Doyle (Reading). Subs: Folan (Hull City) for Keogh (22 mins), Gibson (Manchester Utd) for Andrews (54 mins), N Hunt (Reading) for Doyle (63 mins).

Referee:Wolfgang Stark (Germany).

Iaquinta 10 Sent off: Pazzini 4