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John O'Shea had a fairytale night in Germany, fresh off Ireland's comfortable 7-0 home win over Gibraltar, he and his team-mates travelled to Gelsenkirchen to take on the world champions in their most difficult fixture in Group D of Euro 2016 Qualification.
In what was O'Shea's 100th cap for Ireland, Germany dominated from the off with Erik Durm advancing from left-back and smashing a 25-yard shot off the crossbar with only five minutes on the clock. Despite Germany dominating proceedings, Ireland held firm and were able to restrict the hosts to few real chances. Antonio Rudgier headed one such chance wide when he really should have done better and O'Shea had to be alert to clear when Marc Wilson and David Forde made mistakes to allow Germany a free shot on goal from the touchline but Ireland got to half-time with the score at 0-0 and the world champions looking frustrated.
Germany brought on Arsenal's Lukas Podolski at the break as they looked to make amends for their 2-0 away defeat to Poland, he thought he had won a penalty on the hour mark by Wilson but the referee was correct to wave his penalty appeal away with replays showing there was no contact. After a terrific defensive performance Ireland were starting to tire and in the 70th minute the hosts finally took the lead as Toni Kroos was allowed to line a shot up and with Ireland slow to close him down he arrowed a drive past Forde and into the corner from 25-yards out.
That looked to have given Germany the win but, after Hoolahan was somehow stopped from scoring by Durm at the death, O'Shea popped up in the Germany box deep into stoppage time and was able to get a foot to Jeff Hendrick's clever hook back across goal and secure a dramatic point for Ireland:
That goal, only his third for Ireland, capped a brilliant defensive performance from the Sunderland captain, who shone on his 100th appearance for his country.
O'Shea wasn't the only Sunderland player to score in the latest round of international fixtures, with Jozy Altidore getting on the scoresheet for the USA in his hometown of Boca Raton during a 1-1 draw with Honduras.
Altidore's goal came in the 10th minute when he raced onto a Michael Bradley ball over the top into the wide left position, powered into the box and hit a shot into the goalkeeper's near post:
Altidore's goal was cancelled out late on by Hull City's Maynor Figueroa, in what was probably a fair result as neither side particularly impressed. Although Altidore scored a fine goal, which will hopefully help his confidence once he returns to the club, he didn't have a great game as he looked to be trying too hard to impress his hometown fans but in Altidore's case a goal was important as he looks to build on his recent Capital One Cup goal against Stoke City.
Steven Fletcher started once again for Scotland, as they gained an acceptable point in a 2-2 away draw to Poland. Fletcher didn't have any chances to score himself but he led the line well, put in a great shift and played a brilliant diagonal ball in the lead up to Shaun Maloney's first half equaliser:
Scotland did take the lead through Steven Naismith only to see Arkadiusz Milik equalise for the Poles, that point for Scotland sees them on four points after three games, level with world champions Germany but trailing Ireland and Poland who both have seven points.
Santiago Vergini played the full 90 minutes for Argentina as they thrashed Hong Kong 7-0, in what was only his second cap for his country, coming two years after his debut. He had a quiet game as Argentina completely dominated, with two goals each for Gonzalo Higuain, Nicolas Gaitan, Lionel Messi coming after Ever Banega had opened the scoring. With Vergini's old Newell's Old Boy manager Gerardo Martino now the Argentina manager, Vergini is likely to be a regular fixture in the Argentina squad with Martino a big fan of the defender, he even tried to sign him last summer when he was Barcelona manager.
Charis Mavrias dropped to the bench as Greece lost at home to Northern Ireland, Costel Pantilimon remained back-up to Fiorentina goalkeeper Ciprian Tatarusanu as Romania won 2-0 away to Finland and Seb Larsson was surprisingly dropped to the bench, a situation he wasn't particularly pleased with.
We can now get back to proper football, with the next set of international fixtures taking place the week beginning November 10, as O'Shea's Ireland will take on Altidore's USA and Fletcher takes on England.
