Murphy brace sinks Moldova

Daryl Murphy scored twice, as Ireland beat Moldova 2-0 at the Aviva Stadium to set up a winner-takes-all World Cup qualifier decider against Wales on Monday.

The 34-year-old, who had netted just once before in 29 previous games for his country, opened the scoring after just 106 seconds when he hooked home a misdirected header by Moldova's Aleksandru Gatscan as he attempted to clear Stephen Ward's long throw from the left.

And the Nottingham Forest striker doubled the lead, and his goal tally for the night, on 19 minutes with a brilliant back-across-goal header from Ward's deep cross to the far post beyond the dive of Moldova goalkeeper Ilie Cebanu.

But it was another difficult night for Shane Long, who extended his barren run in front of goal for club and country to 24 matches and 237 days by wasting at least two gilt-edged chances against the bottom-of-the-table side. 

Moldova finished the game with 10 men after Gatscan was shown a straight red card for a weak headbutt on Ireland midfielder Harry Arter.

Serbia still top Group D on 18 points despite their 3-2 defeat in Austria, although Slavoljub Muslin's side will still qualify for Russia 2018 with a home win against Georgia on Monday.

Ireland are third in the group with 16 points from nine games, while Wales lie second with 17 points from nine games following their 1-0 win over Georgia in Tbilisi earlier on Friday.

However, Chris Coleman's side may need to win Monday's game against the Irish at the Cardiff City Stadium to ensure they qualify for the play-offs.

Only eight of the nine second-placed sides in the European Qualifiers progress to the play-offs, with the runner-up with the worst record missing out.

Wales currently have the sixth-best record of the nine sides in second place, while Ireland are likely to be in the top eight if they beat Wales on Monday to nick the runners-up spot.

The Republic of Ireland's Under-21 European Qualifier Group 5 qualifier against Israel at Tallaght Stadium on Monday, 9 October will be shown live on eir Sport 1 from 3.25pm [KO 3.30pm].

Photo Inpho/ Ryan Byrne

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